duncan228
11-29-2008, 01:45 AM
From Spurs.com (http://www.nba.com/spurs/news/quotes_081128.html).
Spurs Head Coach Gregg Popovich
On the game - “It was tougher tonight than the first time we played them. They showed good character and came back after we had our way in Memphis. We were focused enough in the fourth quarter to get it done.”
On the return and play of Tony Parker - “Anytime you get one of your best players back (it’s good). Tony has done a great job with his rehab, as has Manu. Tony did a fine job. He moved the basketball well and made great decisions. His rhythm was good; he’s back.”
On If having the starters back, mixed with the new guys, made it feel like pre-season - “Yeah, it kind of does. Tomorrow I have no idea who will start, who will come off the bench or where the minutes will be. It will be a good discussion on the plane to Houston.”
On Tim Duncan - “He plays the entire time. He always comes to win and is always focused. He scored for us at the end of the game (when we needed it).”
On Kurt Thomas - “Kurt (Thomas) is slowly getting back into shape and trying to get some time back on the court.”
On the bench play - “When the game got to six, seven, eight points, in the NBA things can turn sour. They (Ime Udoka and George Hill) got two or three steals and that ended the game. They were the two responsible.”
Tony Parker
On his comeback - “It feels great. When your out for three weeks all you can think about is getting back on the court and trying to have fun while helping your team win.”
On Physical condition - “I felt like I was ready to play two days ago but Pop wanted to be careful with me. He wanted me take my time coming back because I was expected to miss four weeks. I waited and worked on my strength conditioning to be ready to play tonight.”
On the Importance of his return - “Honestly I felt like I was ready to play. The team has done a great job during my absence I just didn’t feel the need to rest more. I love the game of basketball and I couldn’t wait to get back out on the court.”
On Team play - “I think its going to take some time especially with Manu getting back into his rhythm. When Manu is healthy we will start calling more plays for him and right now we aren’t doing that. Once our team gets healthy we can focus on working together. I think this team will be fine with players like George Hill and Roger Mason Jr. stepping up.”
Roger Mason, Jr.
On Manu and Tony’s return - “It feels great to have both of them back. I think it really makes us a deeper team. Tony really didn’t miss a beat tonight and Manu is getting better and better. Its very exciting to watch. We had two all-stars come off the bench tonight and I don’t think may teams in this league can say that.”
On filling his role - “I expect to have the same role on the court. I plan on continuing to stay aggressive. As we get healthier we just increase our options and it becomes together to prepare for us.”
Grizzlies Head Coach Marc Iavaroni
On the energy of the team tonight - "Well it was better in the second half, we lost the second half by two points but that’s not good enough when you’re down ten. Clearly this game was won by their bench as they scored 64 to 4 as I have never seen such a deficit like that before. We lost Quinton Ross as that hurt us and we had to go with some other guys. We just need to have a boost not just offensively but defensively.”
On what Spurs did to make stops for the Grizzlies tonight - "Like always they got Duncan in the middle as they’re very good on the perimeter. They work very hard but to our credit our starters stepped up as Rudy had it going. Our point guards did their job to get us in the offense but they are former world champions for a reason.”
On if energy of team is improving - "Yeah we played more solidly. Conley shot the ball very well as that helped us offensively and people just have to play modestly.”
On the amount of turnovers that led to Spurs points - “Yeah, we made a couple of turnovers that fed them a little bit as they would get fast breaks and score an easy two. But you can never be satisfied, in the first half we were satisfied defensively to give up 46 but we only scored 36 and in the second half and we were happy offensively as we scored 61 but you can’t win giving up 63 points.
Darko Milicic
On the game - "Our defense really got down, we got a couple of points but we didn’t cover Duncan. We didn’t help on the weak side so we gave them a couple easy layups and shots as our offense wasn’t pretty. Playing a team like this, they may not be the current champions but they play like champions. So we got to play champion-style basketball if you want to beat them.”
On their performance in the second half - "We were helping each other in the first half, contesting all the shots as we didn’t give them any offensive rebounds and we didn’t give them much help on the weak side. We let them pass to open guy and we didn’t contest .”
On energy better in second half - "Yeah it was a good effort but we just have to play smart. They’re a much more experienced team and they play smarter than us so it’s a good experience but we just have to play smart. ”
Mike Conley
On the game - "Yeah we played with a lot of energy tonight as the biggest thing we did was compete and our guys competed from the first to the fourth quarter. It wasn’t good enough to beat the Spurs but that’s the kind of effort we need to have night in and night out.”
On the amount of shots the Spurs got - "They got a lot of penetration, they got in the paint a lot which drew our men and got them a lot of easy looks in the corner. They had Tim Duncan going down low and as we gave them a couple of free throws.”
On what Grizzlies did well tonight - "We did a great job of just moving the ball and good looks. OJ did a good job of being aggressive to the rim as we ran a lot of plays through him. Rudy was good tonight and they did a good job of finishing those plays as our guys got great shots out of it.”
Spurs Head Coach Gregg Popovich
On the game - “It was tougher tonight than the first time we played them. They showed good character and came back after we had our way in Memphis. We were focused enough in the fourth quarter to get it done.”
On the return and play of Tony Parker - “Anytime you get one of your best players back (it’s good). Tony has done a great job with his rehab, as has Manu. Tony did a fine job. He moved the basketball well and made great decisions. His rhythm was good; he’s back.”
On If having the starters back, mixed with the new guys, made it feel like pre-season - “Yeah, it kind of does. Tomorrow I have no idea who will start, who will come off the bench or where the minutes will be. It will be a good discussion on the plane to Houston.”
On Tim Duncan - “He plays the entire time. He always comes to win and is always focused. He scored for us at the end of the game (when we needed it).”
On Kurt Thomas - “Kurt (Thomas) is slowly getting back into shape and trying to get some time back on the court.”
On the bench play - “When the game got to six, seven, eight points, in the NBA things can turn sour. They (Ime Udoka and George Hill) got two or three steals and that ended the game. They were the two responsible.”
Tony Parker
On his comeback - “It feels great. When your out for three weeks all you can think about is getting back on the court and trying to have fun while helping your team win.”
On Physical condition - “I felt like I was ready to play two days ago but Pop wanted to be careful with me. He wanted me take my time coming back because I was expected to miss four weeks. I waited and worked on my strength conditioning to be ready to play tonight.”
On the Importance of his return - “Honestly I felt like I was ready to play. The team has done a great job during my absence I just didn’t feel the need to rest more. I love the game of basketball and I couldn’t wait to get back out on the court.”
On Team play - “I think its going to take some time especially with Manu getting back into his rhythm. When Manu is healthy we will start calling more plays for him and right now we aren’t doing that. Once our team gets healthy we can focus on working together. I think this team will be fine with players like George Hill and Roger Mason Jr. stepping up.”
Roger Mason, Jr.
On Manu and Tony’s return - “It feels great to have both of them back. I think it really makes us a deeper team. Tony really didn’t miss a beat tonight and Manu is getting better and better. Its very exciting to watch. We had two all-stars come off the bench tonight and I don’t think may teams in this league can say that.”
On filling his role - “I expect to have the same role on the court. I plan on continuing to stay aggressive. As we get healthier we just increase our options and it becomes together to prepare for us.”
Grizzlies Head Coach Marc Iavaroni
On the energy of the team tonight - "Well it was better in the second half, we lost the second half by two points but that’s not good enough when you’re down ten. Clearly this game was won by their bench as they scored 64 to 4 as I have never seen such a deficit like that before. We lost Quinton Ross as that hurt us and we had to go with some other guys. We just need to have a boost not just offensively but defensively.”
On what Spurs did to make stops for the Grizzlies tonight - "Like always they got Duncan in the middle as they’re very good on the perimeter. They work very hard but to our credit our starters stepped up as Rudy had it going. Our point guards did their job to get us in the offense but they are former world champions for a reason.”
On if energy of team is improving - "Yeah we played more solidly. Conley shot the ball very well as that helped us offensively and people just have to play modestly.”
On the amount of turnovers that led to Spurs points - “Yeah, we made a couple of turnovers that fed them a little bit as they would get fast breaks and score an easy two. But you can never be satisfied, in the first half we were satisfied defensively to give up 46 but we only scored 36 and in the second half and we were happy offensively as we scored 61 but you can’t win giving up 63 points.
Darko Milicic
On the game - "Our defense really got down, we got a couple of points but we didn’t cover Duncan. We didn’t help on the weak side so we gave them a couple easy layups and shots as our offense wasn’t pretty. Playing a team like this, they may not be the current champions but they play like champions. So we got to play champion-style basketball if you want to beat them.”
On their performance in the second half - "We were helping each other in the first half, contesting all the shots as we didn’t give them any offensive rebounds and we didn’t give them much help on the weak side. We let them pass to open guy and we didn’t contest .”
On energy better in second half - "Yeah it was a good effort but we just have to play smart. They’re a much more experienced team and they play smarter than us so it’s a good experience but we just have to play smart. ”
Mike Conley
On the game - "Yeah we played with a lot of energy tonight as the biggest thing we did was compete and our guys competed from the first to the fourth quarter. It wasn’t good enough to beat the Spurs but that’s the kind of effort we need to have night in and night out.”
On the amount of shots the Spurs got - "They got a lot of penetration, they got in the paint a lot which drew our men and got them a lot of easy looks in the corner. They had Tim Duncan going down low and as we gave them a couple of free throws.”
On what Grizzlies did well tonight - "We did a great job of just moving the ball and good looks. OJ did a good job of being aggressive to the rim as we ran a lot of plays through him. Rudy was good tonight and they did a good job of finishing those plays as our guys got great shots out of it.”