Intro:

Coach and player reaction following the Dallas Mavericks 121-109 home win over the Houston Rockets on Sunday (26 April).

Script:

SOUNDBITE (English) Rick Carlisle, Dallas Mavericks coach: (In response to question about the physicality of the game and the high foul count)

"Are you asking me a question about the officiating? I bought something just for that (puts a piece of tape over his mouth - media laugh). I've got to be careful. It's a physical series, they're a physical team but we stood up to it, we stood up to it tonight and held our ground and that's what we've got to do. It always gets harder going back to the other building but it's a challenge we're looking forward to."

SOUNDBITE (English) Kevin McHale, Houston Rockets coach: (Interrupts journalist's question about his team's offence)

"We didn't play very well tonight, I mean, forget that. We scored early in the game and then went through periods where we just didn't move the ball, took bad shots. They played harder than we did. I mean, they beat us on the boards or they beat us on the boards bad. They had 20 points off offensive rebounds, we had four. They pushed it down on us. We couldn't get Barea stopped at all. He went very well with the ball. Our coverages were really loose and they just played harder than we did. I mean that was the bottom line. They played with more desperation, they played harder than we did. And the bottom line is they deserved to win that game more than we did."