duncan228
12-24-2008, 02:27 AM
Video here (http://www.nba.com/spurs/gameday/081223.html).
Quotes : Spurs vs. T-Wolves : 12/23/08 (http://www.nba.com/spurs/news/quotes_081223.html)
Spurs Head Coach Gregg Popovich
On the game - “Well sometimes it’s not pretty. Minnesota did a great job tonight. With all of the losses, they put that aside and played with energy for 48 minutes. They did it against Houston the other night and they did it to us tonight. They deserve a lot of credit for that, they did a great job. I’m just happy we ground it out and got the win.”
“I thought Tony got us through tonight. He looked like he did the last time we played against them up in Minnesota. He made shots, he went to the hole, he played great defense; Tony was magnificent tonight.”
On when Manu Ginobili grabbed his ankle in the fourth quarter - “He’s in there talking to the doctors now just to see what that was. I’m hoping it’s just scar tissue or something like that. Those things are going to happen to him while he’s recovering, but we’ll find out.”
Tony Parker
On the game - “My shot was going in. When my shot is going in, it opens up everything. Roger and all the shooters were making shots, so the help was coming too fast into the paint, so I was able to go all the way to the basket.”
On the second game of a back-to-back - “I think I only played like 26 minutes…Pop did a good job. Against Sacramento we had a big lead and we rested the starters the whole fourth quarter. I was not too tired tonight.”
On Minnesota cutting the lead to three in the fourth - “They’re going to play hard. You have to give them credit. They played very hard and very physical. They’re tough to stop. Jefferson is tough to guard. Randy Foye had a big game. They’ve lost 12 in a row…so they want to win. They didn’t give up and made it hard on us at the end of the game.”
Roger Mason
Which comes first? Tony’s penetration, or your three-pointers? - “Tony’s penetration has yielded three championships, so we’ll let that develop. When teams want to try to turn their attention to him, I am there for him.”
On playing Christmas Day - “It’ll be a lot of fun. It’s nationally televised…it’s Phoenix and we have a history there…it’s a rivalry…looking forward to it. It will be a fun game.”
Is it a bigger game being nationally televised? - “We don’t get caught up in that. It’s a lot of fun to be able to play on a big stage like that. I think we’re starting to play better and better, and it will be a good test for us.”
Timberwolves Head Coach Kevin McHale
On the game - “They just kept fighting out there. It was a game they played hard. They got to the line. They tried to attack. They tried to make them move their feet. And Tony Parker, holy cow, he sees us coming and, gee I don’t know, he plays really well. He’s making jump shots that we were trying to make him take, and he’s making them.”
“There were some calls that, hey I’m not going to complain because you’ll get fined… There are a lot of those ones that you hope go your way but they didn’t. They’re the toss-ups that you hope go your way.”
“I like the effort from the team. They kept fighting and they didn’t give in. We had plenty of chances to give in, I mean they started that game out like a house on fire. We stemmed some ties, we kept fighting back so that was a positive. Tony had another one of those games where he dominated the ball and was drawing fouls.”
On Randy Foye’s 16 rebounds - “He was aggressive. He went to the hole and made some shots. I really liked the fact that Foye and… I’m very proud of Sebastian Telfair, for not playing for awhile and coming in there and really gave us a big lift. That’s tough to do, I was really happy for him and proud of him. Foye was rebounding; he was in there jumping amongst the trees. He played with high energy and did a nice job rebounding.”
Ryan Gomes
On Tony Parker’s play - It was my first time to see him; it’s hard to guard him because he comes at you and gets you on your heels. He attacks the rim and is a great finisher. He was knocking down long jumpers in the last three minutes of the game. He was taking 18 footers and those are the shots you want him to take but he was knocking them down.
On the foul situation late in the game - Some of the calls that the refs make are on the fly and some go against our team and down are for our team. We fought hard and we played good enough to win. The last 3 minutes we didn’t make enough plays and committed turnovers. We can’t make plays like that and win the game.
On the 13 losses in a row - We can’t get caught up on the losses, when you win you have to take it one game at a time too. We have a few days off before we play New York and we’ll work at getting a win. We haven’t seen one in awhile.
Randy Foye
On the game - We made Tony Parker do what the scouting report wanted and he just made tough shots. I feel like the game was our down the stretch. We fought and even we didn’t win, I see a lot of growth in our team. The last time that we got down to them, they beat us and buried us. This time when we got down, we didn’t give up and we came back. We are working hard and believing in ourselves. It will be aright.
Quotes : Spurs vs. T-Wolves : 12/23/08 (http://www.nba.com/spurs/news/quotes_081223.html)
Spurs Head Coach Gregg Popovich
On the game - “Well sometimes it’s not pretty. Minnesota did a great job tonight. With all of the losses, they put that aside and played with energy for 48 minutes. They did it against Houston the other night and they did it to us tonight. They deserve a lot of credit for that, they did a great job. I’m just happy we ground it out and got the win.”
“I thought Tony got us through tonight. He looked like he did the last time we played against them up in Minnesota. He made shots, he went to the hole, he played great defense; Tony was magnificent tonight.”
On when Manu Ginobili grabbed his ankle in the fourth quarter - “He’s in there talking to the doctors now just to see what that was. I’m hoping it’s just scar tissue or something like that. Those things are going to happen to him while he’s recovering, but we’ll find out.”
Tony Parker
On the game - “My shot was going in. When my shot is going in, it opens up everything. Roger and all the shooters were making shots, so the help was coming too fast into the paint, so I was able to go all the way to the basket.”
On the second game of a back-to-back - “I think I only played like 26 minutes…Pop did a good job. Against Sacramento we had a big lead and we rested the starters the whole fourth quarter. I was not too tired tonight.”
On Minnesota cutting the lead to three in the fourth - “They’re going to play hard. You have to give them credit. They played very hard and very physical. They’re tough to stop. Jefferson is tough to guard. Randy Foye had a big game. They’ve lost 12 in a row…so they want to win. They didn’t give up and made it hard on us at the end of the game.”
Roger Mason
Which comes first? Tony’s penetration, or your three-pointers? - “Tony’s penetration has yielded three championships, so we’ll let that develop. When teams want to try to turn their attention to him, I am there for him.”
On playing Christmas Day - “It’ll be a lot of fun. It’s nationally televised…it’s Phoenix and we have a history there…it’s a rivalry…looking forward to it. It will be a fun game.”
Is it a bigger game being nationally televised? - “We don’t get caught up in that. It’s a lot of fun to be able to play on a big stage like that. I think we’re starting to play better and better, and it will be a good test for us.”
Timberwolves Head Coach Kevin McHale
On the game - “They just kept fighting out there. It was a game they played hard. They got to the line. They tried to attack. They tried to make them move their feet. And Tony Parker, holy cow, he sees us coming and, gee I don’t know, he plays really well. He’s making jump shots that we were trying to make him take, and he’s making them.”
“There were some calls that, hey I’m not going to complain because you’ll get fined… There are a lot of those ones that you hope go your way but they didn’t. They’re the toss-ups that you hope go your way.”
“I like the effort from the team. They kept fighting and they didn’t give in. We had plenty of chances to give in, I mean they started that game out like a house on fire. We stemmed some ties, we kept fighting back so that was a positive. Tony had another one of those games where he dominated the ball and was drawing fouls.”
On Randy Foye’s 16 rebounds - “He was aggressive. He went to the hole and made some shots. I really liked the fact that Foye and… I’m very proud of Sebastian Telfair, for not playing for awhile and coming in there and really gave us a big lift. That’s tough to do, I was really happy for him and proud of him. Foye was rebounding; he was in there jumping amongst the trees. He played with high energy and did a nice job rebounding.”
Ryan Gomes
On Tony Parker’s play - It was my first time to see him; it’s hard to guard him because he comes at you and gets you on your heels. He attacks the rim and is a great finisher. He was knocking down long jumpers in the last three minutes of the game. He was taking 18 footers and those are the shots you want him to take but he was knocking them down.
On the foul situation late in the game - Some of the calls that the refs make are on the fly and some go against our team and down are for our team. We fought hard and we played good enough to win. The last 3 minutes we didn’t make enough plays and committed turnovers. We can’t make plays like that and win the game.
On the 13 losses in a row - We can’t get caught up on the losses, when you win you have to take it one game at a time too. We have a few days off before we play New York and we’ll work at getting a win. We haven’t seen one in awhile.
Randy Foye
On the game - We made Tony Parker do what the scouting report wanted and he just made tough shots. I feel like the game was our down the stretch. We fought and even we didn’t win, I see a lot of growth in our team. The last time that we got down to them, they beat us and buried us. This time when we got down, we didn’t give up and we came back. We are working hard and believing in ourselves. It will be aright.