Here are some post-game reactions from the Miami Heat’s 88-86 victory over the Dallas Mavericks Sunday night in Game 3 of the NBA Finals. The Heat lead the series, 2-1.
Miami coach Erik Spoelstra
This series is turning out to be an absolute series of endurance, mental and physical. We didn’t expect anything less than the competitive physicality of this game tonight. Our guys really competed. At times it was a little uneven, but we found ways to make plays on both ends of the court, to grind this game out in a very enduring win. … We have two wins under our belt. We have to try to be greedy and get another one. But there isn’t going to be anything easy that comes in this series for either team.
Dirk Nowitzki
Q. Hey, Dirk, Jason Kidd was just out here, and he said you love the big stage, and you love to carry the team at the end. You scored the last nine points of Game 2. You scored their last 12 points last night. You may love the big stage, but do you need more help?
DIRK NOWITZKI: Well, I thought we had opportunities. First of all, we can’t always fall down behind. I think we’re always reacting. We did in the first quarter. We fell down big. Third quarter we came out slow, fell down big. Obviously it takes a lot of energy for us to fight back. But even down the stretch, I think there were opportunities. I thought Jet had a good look at the baseline. I think it was to tie it or go up two. And we had a mental breakdown, that one play Bosh gets the wide-open jumper the last minute. So I thought we had our opportunities, and just weren’t good enough. You have to give them credit. Their defense is pretty good.
Dwyane Wade
We felt this was a must-win. We had to put it upon ourselves to try to take home court back in a sense, and by any means necessary.
Q. Dwyane, can you talk about the urgency you played with tonight? Especially with the rebounding. You were really aggressive going towards the boards.
DWYANE WADE: Yeah, just understanding the moment. Took it upon myself as a leader to try to lead my guys by example. And I think for me it started in practice yesterday. I was very aggressive going to the hole practicing. My teammates seen it. They can tell that I wanted this game, and I came in with the same mentality today. Just trying to — like I said, I’ve been here before. So just trying to lead. My guys did a great job of following that lead. We were able to come out with the win.
Dallas coach Rick Carlisle
I think tonight one of the things that hurt us was we were digging out of holes all night, with the exception of the very beginning of the game. We get down five or seven, climb back into it, get a one-point lead or get it tied, and then we were a minute or two later back digging ourselves back again. It’s very difficult playing from behind all the time.
So they played a better game tonight for sure. But we’re going to have to play more efficiently. We’re going to have to get the ball in the basket more. And overall we’re going to have to play a better game.