duncan228
12-12-2010, 09:17 PM
Post-Game Quotes (http://www.nba.com/spurs/gameday/101212.html)
Head Coach Gregg Popovich
(On the defensive effort tonight) “We’re working on it and we have to get better at it. They know we have to get better at it as a group. We’re trying to do that and today was a good performance defensively. That’s something to enjoy, but we have a ways to go. Right now there are about 10 to 15 teams that are doing a better job defensively then we are. So we have to pay attention to it.”
(On if it’s getting harder to pick out negative things about his Spurs) “Coaches are sick people. When you have a film to look at for 48 minutes and you know it’s a game of mistakes, whether you win or lose there were many mistakes made. They’ll never be all corrected, but that’s why we have a job. We try to perfect things, but we’ll never get there. The effort is what it’s all about, because maybe it will get you half way close.”
(On George Hill tonight) “George (Hill) is understanding the message from the beginning of the year that he’s a heck of a player and he needs to be aggressive all the time and not defer to anybody. He needs to think about being a scorer and he’s doing that more and more. We have unselfish players, so when they’re thinking about being aggressive and they’re in attack mode. If there’s nothing there for them, they’re going to be able to hit the open man; that’s a good combination. We’re pleased with the win, because Portland is a tough cover for us. We’ve always had trouble against them. We caught a break today; I think they were tired today. It was there third game in four nights, and a quick three games in four nights with the early start today. We were able to take advantage of that a little bit.”
(On the defense of Brandon Roy) “I think two things: Richard (Jefferson) did a good job on him and Brandon (Roy) didn’t have a good night and sometimes that happens.”
Manu Ginobili
(On the defensive effort today) “[Coach Popovich] has been preaching defense since day one of training camp. It’s not that we weren’t trying before, but things are going our way the last few games. The intensity has picked up and we made some shots, so altogether it leads to this kind of performance. Of course we are happy the way we are playing defense the last few games.”
(On Coach Pop calling a timeout early in the game) “He got a little upset at us, but it was right. We made four mistakes in a row, so he wanted to get his point across as he usually does and it worked out. We started playing better and a little more concentrated.”
(On if the Spurs are making it tougher for Coach Pop to find things to be mad about) “No, there’s always a lot of things we can improve. A game of basketball is a game of mistakes. Offensively, I think we were not very sharp today. We didn’t move the ball as well as the previous games, but it’s great that our defense was so good that it gave us a little margin of error to make a couple mistakes offensively.”
Tim Duncan
(On coming back in the game in the fourth quarter) “I think [Coach Popovich’s] philosophy this year is to try not to play me in the fourth quarter at all, whether we’re winning or losing. I think he thinks our team is better without me out there. I’ve been trying to disprove him at some point.”
(On if he is hard to coach) “I’m very hard to coach and it’s going to get tougher. As the minutes continue to drop and I’m not in the fourth quarter, I’m going to become unbearable on the bench and pretty much annoy him to the point where that he has to put me in. That’s my goal.”
(On if it’s getting more difficult for Coach Pop to find things to complain about) “Absolutely not. What did they score? Like 70-something points? That’s 70-something reasons for him to complain.”
(On if this is the way they prefer to win games) “Absolutely. It’s fun to do a little of both. It’s a long season and you’re going to run into games that go different ways. Although we’d love to be a defensive basketball team that holds people to numbers like this, it’s not going to happen all the time. But we can score the ball, move the ball, share the ball, make shots, and put some points on the board, it’s a double whammy, so we’re happy with the way we’re playing.”
(On if he was aware that this is his 1000th game) “I was not aware. I would rather not be told that. It just means I’ve been playing for a long time and getting really old. I wish I’ve only played 10 and still have 1,000 more in front of me.”
Nate McMillan
(On Spurs play tonight) “They are playing good basketball. They were faster to the ball throughout the night and we struggled to score. By their movement and their ability to score, we were forced into a half court game in a sense of taking the ball out of the net. When you are not making shots against this team and getting movement, it’s going to be tough.”
(On the difference between Spurs play and Trail Blazers play) “Well they are a good team and we are a ways away from the way that team is playing. They are the best team in the league right now and they are playing well. Both units, first and second, are playing well. They can score and put points up.”
(On the Trail Blazers’ play tonight) “I thought we as a unit were staggered. We didn’t have the movement and they were physical and trying to disrupt the timing. A lot of our shots became isolation, as opposed to using screens and second screens to free each other up. You are not going to beat them playing isolation basketball. Tonight we didn’t have a lot of movement and we didn’t set screens, which was the main thing we were pretty much exchanging, as opposed to freeing each other up by setting screens.”
(On the fourth quarter performance) “They (Spurs) pretty much had control. I wanted to see if we could get close with the group we had in. So I decided to get those guys out (the starters).”
(On the lack of free throws) “I thought that our 11 free throws to their 26 is a huge difference. But I thought we got hit going to the basket some but that shows aggressiveness. Some of those I thought were no calls, but others were us just not having movement and setting screens and attacking the basket. Mainly we just shot jump shots.”
(On (Brandon) Roy’s two baskets in the paint, and the rest jump shots) “Tonight we were a jump shooting team; it wasn’t just Brandon (Roy). You have to get into the paint and force the defense to collapse. It’s hard to win in this league if you are shooting a lot of jump shots.”
Brandon Roy
(On what he thinks of the Spurs) “Their style of play is different than the last couple of years. They play fast on the perimeter, and they play really hard. Tonight we were a little tired and you could tell, they just beat us to every ball. They’re a good team, we know why they have 3 losses.”
(On if he was not in rhythm tonight) “I tweaked my knee a little early in the game, and it was little sore going on from there. You know, I still got some looks, but didn’t really have the explosiveness. Earlier I kind of made a move and kind of twisted it a little bit. I didn’t really have the same lift, but I should be good for tomorrow.”
(On how difficult it is to keep up with the Spurs) “Its tougher, because you cant really sit on certain things any more. Now they have a number of guys that are kind of being aggressive. In the past, you know they were going to try and go to Duncan; Parker was going to pick and roll, and then Ginobli coming off the bench. Now they’re kind of attacking it and not really going to Tim as much. Defensively, I noticed that they were funneling a lot of things to Tim with my penetration. There are some things we think we can counter that with, but they did a good job of just trying to funnel me to Tim and just staying on my hip. ”
Joel Przybilla
(On how his knee is feeling) “It feels good, maybe a little bit, but every games getting a little better. A lot is just getting into basketball playing form and that’s the thing. My knee is really not bugging me at all, its just basketball and getting my wind and getting my feel for the game. I been out for so long, but every game I feel a little better and a little more confident out there.”
(On what goes through his mind when he hits a guy on accident during a game) “Nothing, its just part of the game. People do it to me all the time, its part of the game.”
(On what he thinks the team can improve on) “We just got to look at it as there one of the best teams in the league. We were almost there; we just got to be a little more mentally tough. It was just one of those game we didn’t feel like we were getting the right calls. It’s a tough place to play, they get a lot of calls here, they’re a veteran team, and we just got to learn we have to overcome some things.”
Head Coach Gregg Popovich
(On the defensive effort tonight) “We’re working on it and we have to get better at it. They know we have to get better at it as a group. We’re trying to do that and today was a good performance defensively. That’s something to enjoy, but we have a ways to go. Right now there are about 10 to 15 teams that are doing a better job defensively then we are. So we have to pay attention to it.”
(On if it’s getting harder to pick out negative things about his Spurs) “Coaches are sick people. When you have a film to look at for 48 minutes and you know it’s a game of mistakes, whether you win or lose there were many mistakes made. They’ll never be all corrected, but that’s why we have a job. We try to perfect things, but we’ll never get there. The effort is what it’s all about, because maybe it will get you half way close.”
(On George Hill tonight) “George (Hill) is understanding the message from the beginning of the year that he’s a heck of a player and he needs to be aggressive all the time and not defer to anybody. He needs to think about being a scorer and he’s doing that more and more. We have unselfish players, so when they’re thinking about being aggressive and they’re in attack mode. If there’s nothing there for them, they’re going to be able to hit the open man; that’s a good combination. We’re pleased with the win, because Portland is a tough cover for us. We’ve always had trouble against them. We caught a break today; I think they were tired today. It was there third game in four nights, and a quick three games in four nights with the early start today. We were able to take advantage of that a little bit.”
(On the defense of Brandon Roy) “I think two things: Richard (Jefferson) did a good job on him and Brandon (Roy) didn’t have a good night and sometimes that happens.”
Manu Ginobili
(On the defensive effort today) “[Coach Popovich] has been preaching defense since day one of training camp. It’s not that we weren’t trying before, but things are going our way the last few games. The intensity has picked up and we made some shots, so altogether it leads to this kind of performance. Of course we are happy the way we are playing defense the last few games.”
(On Coach Pop calling a timeout early in the game) “He got a little upset at us, but it was right. We made four mistakes in a row, so he wanted to get his point across as he usually does and it worked out. We started playing better and a little more concentrated.”
(On if the Spurs are making it tougher for Coach Pop to find things to be mad about) “No, there’s always a lot of things we can improve. A game of basketball is a game of mistakes. Offensively, I think we were not very sharp today. We didn’t move the ball as well as the previous games, but it’s great that our defense was so good that it gave us a little margin of error to make a couple mistakes offensively.”
Tim Duncan
(On coming back in the game in the fourth quarter) “I think [Coach Popovich’s] philosophy this year is to try not to play me in the fourth quarter at all, whether we’re winning or losing. I think he thinks our team is better without me out there. I’ve been trying to disprove him at some point.”
(On if he is hard to coach) “I’m very hard to coach and it’s going to get tougher. As the minutes continue to drop and I’m not in the fourth quarter, I’m going to become unbearable on the bench and pretty much annoy him to the point where that he has to put me in. That’s my goal.”
(On if it’s getting more difficult for Coach Pop to find things to complain about) “Absolutely not. What did they score? Like 70-something points? That’s 70-something reasons for him to complain.”
(On if this is the way they prefer to win games) “Absolutely. It’s fun to do a little of both. It’s a long season and you’re going to run into games that go different ways. Although we’d love to be a defensive basketball team that holds people to numbers like this, it’s not going to happen all the time. But we can score the ball, move the ball, share the ball, make shots, and put some points on the board, it’s a double whammy, so we’re happy with the way we’re playing.”
(On if he was aware that this is his 1000th game) “I was not aware. I would rather not be told that. It just means I’ve been playing for a long time and getting really old. I wish I’ve only played 10 and still have 1,000 more in front of me.”
Nate McMillan
(On Spurs play tonight) “They are playing good basketball. They were faster to the ball throughout the night and we struggled to score. By their movement and their ability to score, we were forced into a half court game in a sense of taking the ball out of the net. When you are not making shots against this team and getting movement, it’s going to be tough.”
(On the difference between Spurs play and Trail Blazers play) “Well they are a good team and we are a ways away from the way that team is playing. They are the best team in the league right now and they are playing well. Both units, first and second, are playing well. They can score and put points up.”
(On the Trail Blazers’ play tonight) “I thought we as a unit were staggered. We didn’t have the movement and they were physical and trying to disrupt the timing. A lot of our shots became isolation, as opposed to using screens and second screens to free each other up. You are not going to beat them playing isolation basketball. Tonight we didn’t have a lot of movement and we didn’t set screens, which was the main thing we were pretty much exchanging, as opposed to freeing each other up by setting screens.”
(On the fourth quarter performance) “They (Spurs) pretty much had control. I wanted to see if we could get close with the group we had in. So I decided to get those guys out (the starters).”
(On the lack of free throws) “I thought that our 11 free throws to their 26 is a huge difference. But I thought we got hit going to the basket some but that shows aggressiveness. Some of those I thought were no calls, but others were us just not having movement and setting screens and attacking the basket. Mainly we just shot jump shots.”
(On (Brandon) Roy’s two baskets in the paint, and the rest jump shots) “Tonight we were a jump shooting team; it wasn’t just Brandon (Roy). You have to get into the paint and force the defense to collapse. It’s hard to win in this league if you are shooting a lot of jump shots.”
Brandon Roy
(On what he thinks of the Spurs) “Their style of play is different than the last couple of years. They play fast on the perimeter, and they play really hard. Tonight we were a little tired and you could tell, they just beat us to every ball. They’re a good team, we know why they have 3 losses.”
(On if he was not in rhythm tonight) “I tweaked my knee a little early in the game, and it was little sore going on from there. You know, I still got some looks, but didn’t really have the explosiveness. Earlier I kind of made a move and kind of twisted it a little bit. I didn’t really have the same lift, but I should be good for tomorrow.”
(On how difficult it is to keep up with the Spurs) “Its tougher, because you cant really sit on certain things any more. Now they have a number of guys that are kind of being aggressive. In the past, you know they were going to try and go to Duncan; Parker was going to pick and roll, and then Ginobli coming off the bench. Now they’re kind of attacking it and not really going to Tim as much. Defensively, I noticed that they were funneling a lot of things to Tim with my penetration. There are some things we think we can counter that with, but they did a good job of just trying to funnel me to Tim and just staying on my hip. ”
Joel Przybilla
(On how his knee is feeling) “It feels good, maybe a little bit, but every games getting a little better. A lot is just getting into basketball playing form and that’s the thing. My knee is really not bugging me at all, its just basketball and getting my wind and getting my feel for the game. I been out for so long, but every game I feel a little better and a little more confident out there.”
(On what goes through his mind when he hits a guy on accident during a game) “Nothing, its just part of the game. People do it to me all the time, its part of the game.”
(On what he thinks the team can improve on) “We just got to look at it as there one of the best teams in the league. We were almost there; we just got to be a little more mentally tough. It was just one of those game we didn’t feel like we were getting the right calls. It’s a tough place to play, they get a lot of calls here, they’re a veteran team, and we just got to learn we have to overcome some things.”