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NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: SUNS v MAVERICKS

May 29, 2006

Dirk Nowitzki

PHOENIX, ARIZONA: Practice Day

DIRK NOWITZKI: Layups in Game 1 and since then we really made a concerted effort to get back and only send one or two guys to the offensive glass and the other guys get back and kind of fan out to their shooters, because they're so good in transition.
And, I mean, it's been good, but we still made some mistakes that we have to address, you know. They're going to be fired up in Game 4, especially at home. So we still have some mistakes to take away.
Offensively, I thought we had a bad game yesterday. Took a lot of jump shots, and didn't really -- got really away from our system a little bit. But, you know, it was a big win, and we gotta be ready to play tomorrow.
Q. Is it safe to say you guys haven't had your best execution on offense this series yet?
DIRK NOWITZKI: Obviously in Game 1 we had 70 points in the paint, scored 120 points, but we still lost the game. Other than that, they're shooting a lot of jumpers because that puts them in transition.
So we have to make sure we're well positioned about driving, getting to the foul line some. And I thought it was a pretty poor executed game offensively yesterday.
Q. You were able to do the little things last night as far as the hustle, the getting the loose balls. Seemed like you guys were able to get most of that stuff. Would you agree with that as far as you kind of outhustled them last night?
DIRK NOWITZKI: I thought our energy was great, especially in the second half. I thought we started off a little slow. We left their shooters open a couple times, up to the basket a lot of times.
Steve was great early on and they had us down like 10, 12 points. But I think it was great for us to kind of cut that lead right before half and only go in half time by five. That was big, the last couple of minutes at half.
And then the second half I thought our energy was great. We had a lot of deflection on balls defensively. Got our hands active. We rotated before each other, tried to contest their shots. We rebounded well to the floor and obviously our energy was great.
Q. Avery said you guys are kind of underestimated on the hustle plays. What do you think?
DIRK NOWITZKI: Well, I don't know. I think, you know, you win 60 games in a season, you obviously have to do something right and get some loose balls and so, you know, I think we do okay in that area. Obviously we could do a lot better and be a lot more active, but the second half yesterday defensively was pretty good.
Q. Dirk, when you looked at the tape, what are you guys doing better in transition, what is your plan?
DIRK NOWITZKI: I think we're not sending -- like in Game 1, you know, we weren't really used to the pace so we weren't sending three to four guys to the offensive glass sometimes, and they just ran out and got the rebound, got the lay-up. So we're only sending one or two guys in there now, and if we don't get the offensive rebound, the other guys are back, they will take away the lay-ups. We were able to close on their shooters better and that was a biggie.
Q. What about the communication process, when you guys were running back, what are you trying to identify, what are you doing?
DIRK NOWITZKI: That's hard. They come so fast at you. They have some of their shooters, Steve is pushing it always. So there will always be some mistakes because they're so good at it.
But I think communication is very big. You might not be able to run back to your own man all the time. You just have to pick up somebody that's coming at you and I think we're doing a lot better in that category as we did in Game 1. So we did some adjusting. But we still had some mistakes and (inaudible) just now and we have some work to do.
Q. Dirk, rebounding efforts on the defensive end, does it help the tempo on the other end? A lot of times you might grab it, bring the ball down yourself. Does that help on the other end?
DIRK NOWITZKI: I think we have to control the pace, obviously. Rebounding is big on both ends of the floor. It keeps them on defense a lot. We get some offensive rebounds and we bring it out, we run another play and they really don't want to be on defense that long. I think that helps.
Defensively I think we're doing a nice job rebounding, we play small a lot with me at the five. We have to have four, five guys in there rebounding and we can push it. If not, we can bring it out and run a play.
Rebounding is always a big key for us. We run the ball well and put ourselves in position to win the game.
Q. DeSagana seems a little more relaxed when he gets an idea how the fouls are being called early. Has that helped him a lot?
DIRK NOWITZKI: It's been great. His energy has been awesome. He's been rotating on defense. Getting back on defense and, you know, without getting into the series of five, we'll have a tough time playing the series. But he makes it happen.
But they have an energy by running back but being active on the defensive end and he's been great. He does all the little things that we need. So it's been awesome.

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