Dusty May
Opening statement
I thought we competed at a high level. I thought San Antonio’s ball pressure was ultimately the difference, and they were able to knock a couple loose and convert and transition an open floor, and that fueled even more defensive pressure by them. But credit to those guys. I thought they brought it as well.
On Dallas scoring in the paint:
First of all, we were hitting very difficult shots, and that’s what they forced you to hit. And we have guys that can make them. Naji, Larry, those guys have the floaters. And when they’re face
guarding your shooters, I thought we did a nice job of hitting a few midranges and floaters, which kind of loosened them up a little bit. And then when we got into paint, I thought we played off two feet well and had some nice fakes and found back door cuts. We were able to finish with the back doors. And then because they moved Wemby around, I thought we were more active early on, and we were able to get him away from the basket because typically everything’s being funneled to him. And we got a little bit static and stagnant in the second half. But I think it was just as much them as it was us.
On Sergio De Larrea:
I thought he was great. In hindsight, I wish we could have gotten him to the point where he could have gotten the catches and not had to initiate the offense and break Castle’s pressure. But I thought he was great. I mean, his defense is improving. I thought his all-ball defense got better. He was chasing down long rebounds. He came up with five rebounds, four assists. So overall, just a really, really good game by a young player against one of the best defensive back courts when you factor in Castle and Vassell and those guys. They’re athletic, they’re strong, and they play hard.
On what De Larrea brings to line up options:
The best scenario for us is to have multiple handlers and some lineups. There’s give and take. Do you match size? Do you go small? And it seemed like tonight, every time we tried to go small against their bigger lineups, they just countered and went small with us. But yeah, I mean, he’s obviously, this was a great opportunity for him. He didn’t get the same last night in Indiana for obvious reasons with Coop and Kyrie getting those minutes. But he certainly earned more and more trust, and he’s played like this pretty consistently. When you factor in summer league, the exhibition play, and in practice, he has a great mindset every day. So 33 minutes against a team like San Antonio, that’s a good night for Larry.
On Dallas’ turnover issues:
When you look out there, there’s not a lot of ways to alleviate pressure against San Antonio because even their guys that aren’t castle are still pretty good defenders. But we have to do a better job of finding the guys that can bring it up and break pressure the easiest. And we’ve got to do a better job of being strong and staff players, everyone. We’ve just got to have a little bit tighter plan. But some of them I thought also they were, I don’t want to say unforced, but we were a little bit sped up after rebounds, after breaks, things like that. And they made it, you know, like most teams in this league, especially the really good ones like San Antonio, they make you pay for those mistakes, and they did tonight. I thought they made a couple runs based on us having some self-inflicted wounds.
Daniel Gafford
On the ally-oop from De Larrea:
It felt good, because I finally got me a dunk in the game, you know. I finally got my legs back, I would say. But other than that, I mean, it just feels good that we’re building that chemistry, you know, down the stretch, especially down throughout the season. It’s going to be plays like that, and it’s going to just be bread and butter for us.
On what was working in the paint:
Setting screens, holding them, Wemby and Luke, they were playing in kind of a drop, so we were trying to make sure our guards got downhill. Just had to make the bigs, make a decision, and we were just trying to finish around the basket, too.
On what stood out with De Larrea’s big game:
Really his poise, and him further understanding the game night in, night out. You know, he hasn’t really had a good amount of minutes throughout just like these first three games, but tonight I feel like he was ready for, he was ready for like pretty much anything. And they kind of heated him up, they kind of showed him a little bit of pressure, but I feel like he responded the right way.
Advice for Morez Johnson:
Tonight I feel like he had his first test and he responded very well to it. You know, it was a lot of frustration. Throughout the first three games, he’s just been taking it down the road. Throughout the first three games, he’s just been taking, I would say taking his time and just like letting the game slowly develop for him. And he’s finding ways to impact the game in certain ways of just like if he’s either at the four or the five. So he’s just finding ways to just, I would say, build his skill set and it’s helping us on the floor because he’s opening up so many opportunities for us down the stretch.
On the execution of playing zone:
I feel like it helps our communication, you know. We’re nonstop talking. We’re making sure guys are in the right spots. And we’re just playing there and being there for each other. It’s kind of like we’re on the stream, you know, and just really just getting stops.
Sergio De Larrea
First impressions of the home crowd and arena:
It was a good game. The crowd was excellent. I think we lived a really, really good experience today. I think also I had the experience to learn. So that’s a game, a living game.
Thoughts on his big game:
I think I’m working every day for this moment. And I think today was a result of this work.
On whether he was surprised at his scoring burst:
Yeah, it’s my first time scoring this point. Last two games, it was different. But as I said, I think the teammates looked for me as I look for them in all the situations or as they looked for other players. And that’s what I said, that’s the special that we have in this team, that we are looking for the other.
On playing with draftmate Morez Johnson Jr.:
I think it’s a pleasure to play with him. He’s a guy who lives 100% every day in the court. And he’s bringing energy. So this energy is like, for me, it’s very important. He’s bringing all this energy to all the team. And to have him in the team, he’s great. He’s doing all the dirty work. Probably doesn’t look at the stats, but it’s amazing to play with him. And I’m very happy to have him. Also, we are building outside the court chemistry, so he’s a good teammate.
