Shane Battier Game Quotations

Pau played a man's game tonight. That's what a franchise player does.

I think we just caught them on a flat night. When you play a team like that, you've got to recognize it, and you've got to kick concentration up just a notch and kick your energy level up a notch and win the game early.

The amount of preparation and the amount of time you put in just to win one game is unbelievable. I don't think most people realize that. That's where I give our coaching staff a lot of credit. They put in the time, and we're always prepared. They should get a lot of credit on that front.

We just didn't have it tonight. To beat Dallas you have to bring your 'A' game and we obviously didn't.

A wise man once said that the further you get away from the game, the easier the game becomes. That's probably the truest statement in professional sports.

If you try to mess with the basketball gods, they punish you in the end. All the talk of massaging and losing games, that's not in our minds right now. We're trying to win every single game each time we step on the court. Wherever we are at the end of the year, hopefully we'll have some momentum and play well in the playoffs.

It's not that complicated. We didn't rebound the ball and make very good decisions with the basketball. Now, it's about making basketball plays. Basic basketball plays. The older guys keep telling us it's not the national championship game. It's a series. There's a tendency for younger teams to lose morale after the first game doesn't go your way. We're a pretty positive group and that comes from experience.

This was probably the toughest game of the year. We're proud of ourselves. We could have packed it in when they made a run and just said 'we're going to lose this one.' But good teams don't make excuses. They find ways, and we want to keep this thing rolling.