duncan228
04-25-2009, 09:37 PM
Post Game Quotes, Video, and Recap here:
http://www.nba.com/spurs/gameday/090425.html
Locker Room interviews with Pop, Duncan, Finley, Mason Jr., Hill, and Udoka.
Tim Duncan
(On Tony’s game tonight) “Tony was unbelievable. He really kept us in it. We just hate to have an effort like that go to waste. But he was unbelievable tonight, and once again we played pretty decent in the first half but the third quarter killed us again. We have to find a way to solve that problem. We seem to come out of the half and lose leads or let people back in the game or increase people’s leads. So that was another problem for us tonight.”
(Does this team have three wins in a row left in them?) “We’ve got to or we go home. There’s no two ways about it, there’s no magic answer to that. We’re going to go home here and we’re going to try to win that one at home, and come back here and do that same.”
(Is there a concern that he and Tony are having to score too much?) “Obviously there is, but that’s the playoffs. You want your guys to score. We have to take the shots, we have to make the shots, we have to get people involved. Hopefully we can make enough shots were we start drawing attention that we get people wide open shots. We’re going to keep on doing that and see what happens.”
(On how he feels in the series) “I feel great. I feel as good as I’ve felt all year. It’s recovery time now and I have to gear up and do it again.”
(Were you surprised on how active Hollins was on you?) “Was I surprised? No, I was not surprised. He’s a young buck and he’s very athletic and was all over the place. He gave them a big boost tonight. He played well.”
(Is there a tentativeness to the Spurs shooting?) “I don’t think so. I give Dallas credit. I think they’re doing a great job of rotating and contesting shots. I’ll put a little bit of blame on Tony and myself. We have to create a little more space for our guys to get those shots a little more wide open. We’ll continue to do that and we’ll do a better job of delivering that ball and we have some of the best shooters in the league, and we love the shots they take. So we’ll continue to be confident in them and try to get them better looks.”
(On getting within two at the end of the fourth) “We were right back in it. I don’t’ know what the clock was, two minutes, and that’s when Ryan [Hollins] got an offensive rebound and finished that one. Now it’s a four point game. We had opportunities. We had great opportunities and I just think we didn’t execute well down the stretch. They did a good job, Dirk with his last play put it away. All you can do is give them credit, they did their job better than us down the stretch.”
“We’ve been in a hole before. And as I said, all you can do is take it one game at a time, as cliché as that is, that’s all that you can do. We’re going to focus on this next game. If we get this next game we’ll come back in here and put a little pressure on them. So hopefully we can continue to apply pressure.”
Rick Carlisle
“The biggest thing we had to overcome were turnovers and some mistakes that we were making in the first half, and most of it was in the second quarter. At halftime, I believe it was 10 turnovers, 17 points. We were putting ourselves in a hole. We did a better job with that in the second half. Josh Howard gave us a huge half. Just tremendous. That was certainly the difference in the second half.
“By nature, we’re a pretty confident group. It’s a veteran team. But we get tested. We were tested a lot during the regular season. Very slow start. A lot of people wrote us off early. Guys battled back. The harder you fight, the tougher it is to give in. In the second quarter when they made a huge run at us and took the lead, we had to really suck it up as a group. The guys did a great job in the second half. San Antonio is a persistent, strong-willed team. We had to be very good in the second half to win the game.”
(On winning despite 38 percent shooting from field) “Fortunate. We were fortunate to win Game 1 when we gave then 11 threes and let them shoot 47 percent. The stats can be misleading. We got to the free throw line 39 times which mitigated some of those other things. We had a huge rebounding tonight. When you’re getting extra possessions off rebounds and extra points at the free throw line when the clock is stopped, they’re going to help mitigate some of the other statistical things that stare you in the face.”
“We’ve just got to go hour-to-hour with this. It’s so dangerous to get ahead of yourself. Right now, I’m thinking about the things we need to do better from this game. I’m really pleased that we won because it was a gut check to start the third quarter with the way they finished the half. A 3-1 lead is great to have but it’s no guarantee. I was on one of the only eight teams of all-time that came back from 3-1 lead and it’s possible to do. They are by no means out of the series. We’ve got to continue to do the things that we do well as a team and eliminate some of our mistakes that we can control.”
Josh Howard
“First of all I’d like to thank the fans and they pushed us over the hump. We’ve got another tough game coming up on Tuesday, but for the most part guys came out there and played great.”
(Dirk and Jet struggled on the offensive end tonight) – “It was a collective group effort, everyone giving it their all. We know as far as San Antonio what they want to do with Jet and Dirk so we’re working on and doing different things to get the ball in the basket and guys are responding great to it.”
(How huge was JKidd’s defense on Tony Parker in the 2nd half?) – “It was real big. Tony came out hot so we refocused at half and JKidd lead the charge.”
(Talk about Ryan Hollins’ play tonight?) – “He had a lot of energy out there, but we need that. It came at the right time and he was a spark plug for us. We’ve got to help him with the dunks and yelling, but for the most part its great energy and we need that night in and night out.”
(You know that the Spurs are not going to quit in this series?) – “We have to do the same things down there and we did up here. It’s going to be a tough crowd, they’re going to come with everything and we’ve got to be ready and focused.”
Ryan Hollins
“I knew I had a big responsibility to come in and try to shut them down and I saw in the first half that Damp got three fouls. I know how physical he plays, he’s our stopper inside, that easily that fourth foul could come and coach looks at me in those situations, just like in the Houston game, to come in and bring energy and make everything tough for them. I just try to use my length and athleticism to my advantage.”
(Talk about trying to guard Tim Duncan and Tony Parker?) – “I knew he (Parker) was looking to shoot first and he had his jumper going, he had his drive going and we just tried to put two bodies on him, a hand in his face and make him see me every time he comes off the screen. We played good team defense on him in the second half. Dirk was on the back side and he took a huge charge on him (Duncan) that definitely sparked us and we just have to try to make it hard on both of those guys.”
“We have to trust each other on the defensive end. Tonight when we were scrambling and defending it was great team defense. Dirk really helped me on the weak side and JKidd was helping me and we all scrambled well and played well together.”
http://www.nba.com/spurs/gameday/090425.html
Locker Room interviews with Pop, Duncan, Finley, Mason Jr., Hill, and Udoka.
Tim Duncan
(On Tony’s game tonight) “Tony was unbelievable. He really kept us in it. We just hate to have an effort like that go to waste. But he was unbelievable tonight, and once again we played pretty decent in the first half but the third quarter killed us again. We have to find a way to solve that problem. We seem to come out of the half and lose leads or let people back in the game or increase people’s leads. So that was another problem for us tonight.”
(Does this team have three wins in a row left in them?) “We’ve got to or we go home. There’s no two ways about it, there’s no magic answer to that. We’re going to go home here and we’re going to try to win that one at home, and come back here and do that same.”
(Is there a concern that he and Tony are having to score too much?) “Obviously there is, but that’s the playoffs. You want your guys to score. We have to take the shots, we have to make the shots, we have to get people involved. Hopefully we can make enough shots were we start drawing attention that we get people wide open shots. We’re going to keep on doing that and see what happens.”
(On how he feels in the series) “I feel great. I feel as good as I’ve felt all year. It’s recovery time now and I have to gear up and do it again.”
(Were you surprised on how active Hollins was on you?) “Was I surprised? No, I was not surprised. He’s a young buck and he’s very athletic and was all over the place. He gave them a big boost tonight. He played well.”
(Is there a tentativeness to the Spurs shooting?) “I don’t think so. I give Dallas credit. I think they’re doing a great job of rotating and contesting shots. I’ll put a little bit of blame on Tony and myself. We have to create a little more space for our guys to get those shots a little more wide open. We’ll continue to do that and we’ll do a better job of delivering that ball and we have some of the best shooters in the league, and we love the shots they take. So we’ll continue to be confident in them and try to get them better looks.”
(On getting within two at the end of the fourth) “We were right back in it. I don’t’ know what the clock was, two minutes, and that’s when Ryan [Hollins] got an offensive rebound and finished that one. Now it’s a four point game. We had opportunities. We had great opportunities and I just think we didn’t execute well down the stretch. They did a good job, Dirk with his last play put it away. All you can do is give them credit, they did their job better than us down the stretch.”
“We’ve been in a hole before. And as I said, all you can do is take it one game at a time, as cliché as that is, that’s all that you can do. We’re going to focus on this next game. If we get this next game we’ll come back in here and put a little pressure on them. So hopefully we can continue to apply pressure.”
Rick Carlisle
“The biggest thing we had to overcome were turnovers and some mistakes that we were making in the first half, and most of it was in the second quarter. At halftime, I believe it was 10 turnovers, 17 points. We were putting ourselves in a hole. We did a better job with that in the second half. Josh Howard gave us a huge half. Just tremendous. That was certainly the difference in the second half.
“By nature, we’re a pretty confident group. It’s a veteran team. But we get tested. We were tested a lot during the regular season. Very slow start. A lot of people wrote us off early. Guys battled back. The harder you fight, the tougher it is to give in. In the second quarter when they made a huge run at us and took the lead, we had to really suck it up as a group. The guys did a great job in the second half. San Antonio is a persistent, strong-willed team. We had to be very good in the second half to win the game.”
(On winning despite 38 percent shooting from field) “Fortunate. We were fortunate to win Game 1 when we gave then 11 threes and let them shoot 47 percent. The stats can be misleading. We got to the free throw line 39 times which mitigated some of those other things. We had a huge rebounding tonight. When you’re getting extra possessions off rebounds and extra points at the free throw line when the clock is stopped, they’re going to help mitigate some of the other statistical things that stare you in the face.”
“We’ve just got to go hour-to-hour with this. It’s so dangerous to get ahead of yourself. Right now, I’m thinking about the things we need to do better from this game. I’m really pleased that we won because it was a gut check to start the third quarter with the way they finished the half. A 3-1 lead is great to have but it’s no guarantee. I was on one of the only eight teams of all-time that came back from 3-1 lead and it’s possible to do. They are by no means out of the series. We’ve got to continue to do the things that we do well as a team and eliminate some of our mistakes that we can control.”
Josh Howard
“First of all I’d like to thank the fans and they pushed us over the hump. We’ve got another tough game coming up on Tuesday, but for the most part guys came out there and played great.”
(Dirk and Jet struggled on the offensive end tonight) – “It was a collective group effort, everyone giving it their all. We know as far as San Antonio what they want to do with Jet and Dirk so we’re working on and doing different things to get the ball in the basket and guys are responding great to it.”
(How huge was JKidd’s defense on Tony Parker in the 2nd half?) – “It was real big. Tony came out hot so we refocused at half and JKidd lead the charge.”
(Talk about Ryan Hollins’ play tonight?) – “He had a lot of energy out there, but we need that. It came at the right time and he was a spark plug for us. We’ve got to help him with the dunks and yelling, but for the most part its great energy and we need that night in and night out.”
(You know that the Spurs are not going to quit in this series?) – “We have to do the same things down there and we did up here. It’s going to be a tough crowd, they’re going to come with everything and we’ve got to be ready and focused.”
Ryan Hollins
“I knew I had a big responsibility to come in and try to shut them down and I saw in the first half that Damp got three fouls. I know how physical he plays, he’s our stopper inside, that easily that fourth foul could come and coach looks at me in those situations, just like in the Houston game, to come in and bring energy and make everything tough for them. I just try to use my length and athleticism to my advantage.”
(Talk about trying to guard Tim Duncan and Tony Parker?) – “I knew he (Parker) was looking to shoot first and he had his jumper going, he had his drive going and we just tried to put two bodies on him, a hand in his face and make him see me every time he comes off the screen. We played good team defense on him in the second half. Dirk was on the back side and he took a huge charge on him (Duncan) that definitely sparked us and we just have to try to make it hard on both of those guys.”
“We have to trust each other on the defensive end. Tonight when we were scrambling and defending it was great team defense. Dirk really helped me on the weak side and JKidd was helping me and we all scrambled well and played well together.”