What Jason Kidd and Dirk Nowitzki had to say after the Mavericks' 97-84 loss to New Orleans on Sunday:
Jason Kidd, on the poor shooting on Sunday night: We have to be more patient. When you swing the ball, there are a lot of wide-open shots, but at this time of the year, we want to be able to make those guys work a little bit longer on the defensive end. We just have to be patient.
Dirk Nowitzki, on what went wrong after the first quarter: We've got to go back and look at the film, but all season long we've lost leads way too quick. We gave up fast-break points, way too many, we left some of their shooters wide open and just didn't have the composure you need there when things got tight.
Kidd, on being surprised by his ejection: That's the officials call. I just tried to foul (Jannero) Pargo, wasn't trying to hurt him and they called a flagrant foul.
Nowitzki, on the team's shooting struggles: Everybody has to be in attack mode. We've got to make shots to win in this league. They double-teamed some of our scorers, so if we swing the ball on the weakside, you still got to make plays and that's what this league comes down to. We shot 36 percent at home, that's tough. The second game in New Orleans, we shot 32 percent and this sport is still about scoring points. We just haven't had a great offensive series.
Kidd, on what the team has to do to get the series back to Dallas: Well, I think we have to be confident and again, there's no pressure on us. We just have to relax and play and take one quarter at a time. If we can do that, then we can send it to another game.
Nowitzki, on the free-throw differential between Game 3 and Game 4: They really packed up the paint. I felt it on my drives. Every time I put the ball on the floor they really attacked me on the dribble. They sucked in from everywhere and made me pass the ball off the dribble. They tried to make us beat them from the outside. We jacked up 25 three's even though they're supposed to be the three-point shooting team. We just didn't shoot the ball well enough to win the game.
Kidd, on how deflating a loss like this is: I think we're definitely upset with our performance tonight. It wasn't our best. Now we've got to find a way to get a win on the road.
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