Rick Carlisle and Dirk Nowitzki were complimentary of the effort from the Portland Trailblazers in their difficult six-game first round series. Both praised the Blazers' competitiveness but were proud of how their team handled adversity.
Carlisle:
Look, they're a very dangerous team. They're extremely well coached. I worked for this organization for three years and it's nothing but class. This was an opportunity for them to become an elite team by knocking us off, and we knew that. It was one of the things that drove our guys.
We knew it was going to be a brutally hard series. But we also knew it was what we needed. We also knew that we needed to beat them and do it in a way that was in character with a team that was ready to move on.
Nowitzki:
They gave us all we could handle. We knew they were tough, they were well coached, and they kept making plays. Their fans were unbelievable, always pushing them forward. They're a bunch of guys with a lot of pride.
We couldn't get a road win last year and we had a couple of cracks at it this year. We had a big lead in Game 4 and let it slip away then had a big lead [in Game 6], so I'm proud of the guys and how they battled in the fourth [period] and found a way to win.
Not a lot of people picked us to win this series, not a lot of people will pick us to win the next series. We're just going to go out there and keep competing, play smart and play off each other like we have all season.
Watch the post series comments:
Rick Carlisle
Nate McMillan
Dirk Nowitzki