NBA FINALS: CELTICS VS. MAVERICKS

June 8, 2024

Jaden Hardy

Dallas Mavericks

Practice Day

Q. On his performance in Game 1.

JADEN HARDY: First stretch of the game I tried to come up and tried to be aggressive and try to help my team. Just trying to put pressure and try to make possessions and try to find my teammates when they was open.

Q. Sometimes looking at your team lately, I see the old Nets teams of Jason Kidd playing. Does he ever show you guys film of his old playing days?

JADEN HARDY: No, he has not shown us film of his old playing days, but he does do a good job of emphasizing us playing with pace and pushing the pace and playing fast.

Q. We know that this team is obviously very tight and close-knit. As you guys get deeper into the Finals, is the bond growing stronger?

JADEN HARDY: I feel like the bond is growing stronger. We are around each other every day and we talk to each other, hang out and play games. I feel like our bond is really close.

Q. If you had to swap playlists with any teammates, who would it be?

JADEN HARDY: Probably [Alex] Fudge. He's got a good playlist.

Q. What is it like learning from God Shammgod?

JADEN HARDY: It's always good to learn from Sham. He's a good person. Always come here with joy and his background and history behind this game and with the moves Sham got, he just brought a lot of history to this game. You know, it's just good to have people like him out here helping us.

Q. Has Kyrie given you guys any advice about how to manage this run, given he's been to the Finals a couple of times and how to handle these off-days and not get too down after a loss and not too high after a win?

JADEN HARDY: He's been telling us from the jump before we even got here that coming into this thing it was going to be a fight and staying composed and composure and sticking together. There are times when they go on runs in a game. So sticking together and staying together throughout their runs.

And I feel like if we do a good job of doing that and going into Game 2 and playing with physicality and pace, we will have a good chance of winning Game 2.

Q. What would you like to say to all the Mavs fans that traveled here?

JADEN HARDY: To all the Mavericks fans that traveled here, we appreciate you all and we love you, and we are going to try to get this win for you all and go back 1-1 to Dallas with the series tied.