duncan228
12-23-2008, 01:57 AM
Video here (http://www.nba.com/spurs/gameday/081222.html).
Spurs Head Coach Gregg Popovich
On the game - “A lot of guys played pretty well tonight. We got a chance to rest some guys and see some other players play. Hopefully that will benefit us tomorrow.”
On the play of Anthony Tolliver - “Anthony did a good job. He rebounds well and competes on every play. He’s very conscientious. He did a good job.”
On the play of the defense - “Sacramento has a lot of people who can score. For us, it was about making stops, not just scoring ourselves. We tried to limit their scoring.”
Roger Mason
On the game - “I think we did a good job. Early on we wanted to attack knowing we had a back-to-back…I think we did a good job of that.”
On staying focused going into a back-to-back against a weak opponent - “You have to stay diligent in this league. You don’t ever want to lose focus no matter who you are playing. That’s the difference between a good team and a great team.”
Manu Ginobili
On getting starters some rest tonight - “That’s very important…especially looking at the schedule for the next couple of days. We play tomorrow and on Christmas at noon. It’s going to be a tough stretch. It’s really good that we played a good game and that we could be able to rest most of the guys in the fourth quarter.”
On the defense tonight - “I think it was better offense than defense. In the first half we scored 62. That’s a lot of points for us. In the second half we played better defense. They didn’t shoot well either. We really moved the ball well. Overall it was a good game.”
On Tim not getting a shot early in the game - “I didn’t even realize that he hadn’t taken a shot. Most of the games…that would be a big problem. Today it was different. The shots were open…we were moving the ball well. We were scoring.”
Kings Coach Kenny Natt
On the game - "Happy Holidays everyone, but not so happy after this game. Obviously this is the San Antonio Spurs, they‘re a very good ball club and from our standpoint I told the boys hopefully we all learned a lesson from teams like that. The poise, the way they execute, the way they take care of the basketball, we must get better by taking care of the basketball and learn how to do the little things, they gave us a number one lesson on that tonight. So hopefully we can continue to get better I told them not to get discouraged we are going to get better we worked hard on defense early we got the steals we got the rebounds we were looking for, but early we were turning the basketball over which you can’t do against a very good team as the ballgame got away from us in the second quarter. ”
On the team‘s morale after seeing Spurs come out in the first quarter strong offensively - “Well from the standpoint of them thinking it was tough for the Spurs to come out 8 for 9, I was thinking that it was tough, very tough, after seeing them come out shooting with efficiency, as they shot 52 percent from the field, as well as 46 from the three. So from that standpoint, that was the difference as we had 11 turnovers by halftime. Against a great team like this, that‘s always a factor we can‘t do that as the guys understand that we have to become better executioners, even if we have to walk the ball up the floor in the second half as we did. So little by little we‘ll get it done.”
On the Kings offensive struggles - “Obviously as I said, not settling for perimeter jump shots that‘s one of the things that we talked about in addition to taking care of the basketball less turnovers. But when you‘re taking shots all the time and then they‘re getting lay-ups, those things are so evident that we need to become a more aggressive ball club and driving the ball to the basket and when they collapse on you kick the ball out the way that this team did tonight. It was a lesson and a lesson learned, but from the standpoint of growth and development, I see improvement each night and as long we continue to get the improvement we‘ll be ok.”
On Beno Udrih‘s struggling performance tonight against his former team - “Beno is our leading point guard and we need him out there on the floor as he played with a lot of intensity and effort as I think he had four steals tonight so that in itself tells you that he‘s capable of doing it and one of phrases I tell these guys is that you expose yourself, you are showing me that you can get it done. Now we have to be more persistent with his efforts and one of the things that Beno has to work on is being a leader on the floor and knowing when to push the basketball, when to pull it back out, who just had a basket let‘s go back to him, things that point guards as the extension of the coach has to be sharper at and I’m going to continue to challenge him with that. But he’s capable, he’s shown that he’s a capable player it just about making better decisions out there on the floor.”
John Salmons
On the game - The Spurs are a good team. Our problem tonight was turnovers. The Spurs came out and hit shots early and we turned the ball over. The Spurs weren’t having as many turnovers and it doesn’t help when we don’t hit shots and they make a run. It’s frustrating to lose but I think we are playing more consistently. We are continuing to play better and play hard and trying to improve. We are playing some tough teams and they are good. We are still playing without Kevin Martin.
On Beno Udrih’s injury - We just have to stay positive and know that we are in his corner. He’s a good player and we need him back. He’s had a tough stretch but he’ll be ok.
Beno Udrih
On the game - I think we are getting better and we are learning from the mistakes that we shouldn’t be making. When you lose games, you have to forget about it and just get better.
On his jump shot - I have to get to the gym and keep shooting. My shot will keep getting better – it will come back.
http://www.nba.com/spurs/news/quotes_081222.html
Spurs Head Coach Gregg Popovich
On the game - “A lot of guys played pretty well tonight. We got a chance to rest some guys and see some other players play. Hopefully that will benefit us tomorrow.”
On the play of Anthony Tolliver - “Anthony did a good job. He rebounds well and competes on every play. He’s very conscientious. He did a good job.”
On the play of the defense - “Sacramento has a lot of people who can score. For us, it was about making stops, not just scoring ourselves. We tried to limit their scoring.”
Roger Mason
On the game - “I think we did a good job. Early on we wanted to attack knowing we had a back-to-back…I think we did a good job of that.”
On staying focused going into a back-to-back against a weak opponent - “You have to stay diligent in this league. You don’t ever want to lose focus no matter who you are playing. That’s the difference between a good team and a great team.”
Manu Ginobili
On getting starters some rest tonight - “That’s very important…especially looking at the schedule for the next couple of days. We play tomorrow and on Christmas at noon. It’s going to be a tough stretch. It’s really good that we played a good game and that we could be able to rest most of the guys in the fourth quarter.”
On the defense tonight - “I think it was better offense than defense. In the first half we scored 62. That’s a lot of points for us. In the second half we played better defense. They didn’t shoot well either. We really moved the ball well. Overall it was a good game.”
On Tim not getting a shot early in the game - “I didn’t even realize that he hadn’t taken a shot. Most of the games…that would be a big problem. Today it was different. The shots were open…we were moving the ball well. We were scoring.”
Kings Coach Kenny Natt
On the game - "Happy Holidays everyone, but not so happy after this game. Obviously this is the San Antonio Spurs, they‘re a very good ball club and from our standpoint I told the boys hopefully we all learned a lesson from teams like that. The poise, the way they execute, the way they take care of the basketball, we must get better by taking care of the basketball and learn how to do the little things, they gave us a number one lesson on that tonight. So hopefully we can continue to get better I told them not to get discouraged we are going to get better we worked hard on defense early we got the steals we got the rebounds we were looking for, but early we were turning the basketball over which you can’t do against a very good team as the ballgame got away from us in the second quarter. ”
On the team‘s morale after seeing Spurs come out in the first quarter strong offensively - “Well from the standpoint of them thinking it was tough for the Spurs to come out 8 for 9, I was thinking that it was tough, very tough, after seeing them come out shooting with efficiency, as they shot 52 percent from the field, as well as 46 from the three. So from that standpoint, that was the difference as we had 11 turnovers by halftime. Against a great team like this, that‘s always a factor we can‘t do that as the guys understand that we have to become better executioners, even if we have to walk the ball up the floor in the second half as we did. So little by little we‘ll get it done.”
On the Kings offensive struggles - “Obviously as I said, not settling for perimeter jump shots that‘s one of the things that we talked about in addition to taking care of the basketball less turnovers. But when you‘re taking shots all the time and then they‘re getting lay-ups, those things are so evident that we need to become a more aggressive ball club and driving the ball to the basket and when they collapse on you kick the ball out the way that this team did tonight. It was a lesson and a lesson learned, but from the standpoint of growth and development, I see improvement each night and as long we continue to get the improvement we‘ll be ok.”
On Beno Udrih‘s struggling performance tonight against his former team - “Beno is our leading point guard and we need him out there on the floor as he played with a lot of intensity and effort as I think he had four steals tonight so that in itself tells you that he‘s capable of doing it and one of phrases I tell these guys is that you expose yourself, you are showing me that you can get it done. Now we have to be more persistent with his efforts and one of the things that Beno has to work on is being a leader on the floor and knowing when to push the basketball, when to pull it back out, who just had a basket let‘s go back to him, things that point guards as the extension of the coach has to be sharper at and I’m going to continue to challenge him with that. But he’s capable, he’s shown that he’s a capable player it just about making better decisions out there on the floor.”
John Salmons
On the game - The Spurs are a good team. Our problem tonight was turnovers. The Spurs came out and hit shots early and we turned the ball over. The Spurs weren’t having as many turnovers and it doesn’t help when we don’t hit shots and they make a run. It’s frustrating to lose but I think we are playing more consistently. We are continuing to play better and play hard and trying to improve. We are playing some tough teams and they are good. We are still playing without Kevin Martin.
On Beno Udrih’s injury - We just have to stay positive and know that we are in his corner. He’s a good player and we need him back. He’s had a tough stretch but he’ll be ok.
Beno Udrih
On the game - I think we are getting better and we are learning from the mistakes that we shouldn’t be making. When you lose games, you have to forget about it and just get better.
On his jump shot - I have to get to the gym and keep shooting. My shot will keep getting better – it will come back.
http://www.nba.com/spurs/news/quotes_081222.html