timaios
04-10-2008, 12:50 PM
http://www.nba.com/spurs/news/quotes_080409.html
SPURS 79, Suns 96
Postgame Quotes: Spurs vs. Suns 4/9/2008
Spurs Head Coach Gregg Popovich
On the game - “Phoenix played well, they did a great job, and they beat us good.”
On what happened in the fourth quarter - “We only scored 11 points and it was only a four point game going into the fourth quarter. We just didn’t score.”
On when asked if it was just a matter of missing shoots in the fourth - “It’s never just one thing. It’s a little bit of the defense, it’s a little bit of us maybe not playing well, not shooting well, but they get credit for their defense also.”
On seeing if the Suns have gelled with O’Neal - “Absolutely, they’ve been playing very well.”
On if fouls had anything to do with the loss - “Fouls had nothing to do with us getting beat. They played well and beat us good, there’s no excess.”
Manu Ginobili
On their offensive struggles - “It’s turning into a big concern because that’s three games that we have really struggled offensively. I think defensively we were pretty good in the last couple games. We made way too many mistakes down the stretch (tonight), but now the main concern is offensively we’re not sharp enough. We are not making shots. We’re too slow. We have to work on that.”
On fatigue being a factor - “We haven’t been playing that well in the fourth quarter, but it’s not like we’ve been playing that well in the first three quarters either. It’s not that we scored 80 in the first three and then 10 in the fourth, we’re scoring 70 points (total). That’s not enough to beat a great team like Phoenix…or Utah.
“I think we are just in a slump. We are not playing confidently. We are playing slow. I don’t feel tired. I doubt it’s a conditioning thing.”
Tim Duncan
On the game - “I thought we moved the ball well, especially there in the first half. Like I said…a lot of credit to Phoenix…their defense was solid. They had a good game plan and there wasn’t a lot of rotation from them. We played a lot of one-on-one basketball and on a nightly basis we do pretty good by that…tonight we didn’t.
On the fourth quarter - “Defense was solid enough, we just couldn’t sustain miss after miss. A lot of that falls on me…I got a lot of shots in the fourth quarter…what I felt were good looks and they just didn’t go down for me. Credit to Phoenix for pushing it right back at us and scoring the ball. We just gotta find a way for something to go down in the fourth.”
Suns Head Coach Mike D’Antoni
On the game - “Well you know, I think you see what Shaq does for us, and our defense stiffened up in the second half. It was a great win but it still doesn’t mean a whole lot except we are a bit closer to them in the standings and we’ll move on, and I’m sure they’ll regroup and maybe we’ll meet some place down the road. But we’re pretty happy with what happened tonight.”
On playing without Amare - “With Shaq we just have another option in there, and Shaq really turned it on. They had six second chance points all game and usually they have about 25. Boris did a great job, we went small, and were able to defend them and do a lot of switching so everything seemed to work tonight. Its just one of those days where we played well, and our different guys were really contributing.”
On how Shaq changes things - “Well you know he’s 7’2’’ and 325 or whatever, nobody’s knocking him off, he’s right there in your face its tough all night. I don’t want to get ahead of ourselves we played well and I think right now for San Antonio it’s a little funk about scoring and its just not against us, they haven’t scored in the last two or three games, so they’ll come out of it. But you see how we can go into him and he scores or they might have to start doubling him, and he turned it on tonight he was about the best he has looked.”
On the team defense - “We should be good defensively, we’ve got Raja Bell, first team all NBA defensively, and Grant Hill can defend, and we’ve got length, and we’ve just got a lot of different answers that we haven’t had in the past, but its being anchored now by Shaq, and that’s kind of giving everybody a little bit more freedom to get up on their man and play a little bit harder on the perimeter knowing that you’ve got a guy in the back that you know you cant shoot over.”
On a potential playoff meeting - “They’re too good for that, the same as us, you cannot win a game because some guys are a little off, some guys are this and that, and they’re too smart and too good, and Pop’s too good to even think that ‘oh ya we’ve got them psychologically’ its just not going to happen. If we do meet it’ll be a battle, and we’re looking forward to it, and hopefully we meet in the last round, I’d hate to see them right in the first round, but you know we’ll see how it goes.”
Shaquille O’Neal
On the game - “We just wanted to play through everything and suck it up in the fourth quarter. Amare along with myself were in foul trouble so the rest of the guys did a great job on playing defense and we were able to come in a hostile building and get a win.”
On how far the team has to go to be where they want to be - “Unless you’re on a team that has been there a lot, like the Spurs, when you put together a new team you never know what it takes to get there unless you’re there and you’re winning. Of course we have all the pieces on paper but we really don’t know until we go through all our trials and tribulations.”
Grant Hill
On the difference between the game before and the game now with Shaq - “Before with Duncan, we had to double and scramble as he is one of the best passers when doubled. And with Shaq, he has done a very good job with Duncan as he can guard him straight up and Tim’s such a great player that sometimes he gave Shaq a match, so hopefully if we play them again Shaq can continue to guard him the same way.”
On guarding Tony Parker - “Well he definitely gets going, but we just try to go big on him, use our length and we did it the last time we played him and we had success then like we had success tonight. We’re getting there and I think it was great this season to win three out of four games against them.”
Boris Diaw
On the game - “I thought we really kept the ball down defensively. We were really disciplined and we really forced them to our bigs and we didn’t give away too many jump shots and were able to rebound the ball which is good against a team like San Antonio. They are so big and so good on the defensive glass that you don’t want them to get two or three looks at it because they have really good offensive players, but I think we did well tonight.”
On relating to Bruce Bowen - “Due to the fact that we both are given assignments of guarding tough players, I can relate to Bruce. I think me and Bruce go about it two different ways though.”
SPURS 79, Suns 96
Postgame Quotes: Spurs vs. Suns 4/9/2008
Spurs Head Coach Gregg Popovich
On the game - “Phoenix played well, they did a great job, and they beat us good.”
On what happened in the fourth quarter - “We only scored 11 points and it was only a four point game going into the fourth quarter. We just didn’t score.”
On when asked if it was just a matter of missing shoots in the fourth - “It’s never just one thing. It’s a little bit of the defense, it’s a little bit of us maybe not playing well, not shooting well, but they get credit for their defense also.”
On seeing if the Suns have gelled with O’Neal - “Absolutely, they’ve been playing very well.”
On if fouls had anything to do with the loss - “Fouls had nothing to do with us getting beat. They played well and beat us good, there’s no excess.”
Manu Ginobili
On their offensive struggles - “It’s turning into a big concern because that’s three games that we have really struggled offensively. I think defensively we were pretty good in the last couple games. We made way too many mistakes down the stretch (tonight), but now the main concern is offensively we’re not sharp enough. We are not making shots. We’re too slow. We have to work on that.”
On fatigue being a factor - “We haven’t been playing that well in the fourth quarter, but it’s not like we’ve been playing that well in the first three quarters either. It’s not that we scored 80 in the first three and then 10 in the fourth, we’re scoring 70 points (total). That’s not enough to beat a great team like Phoenix…or Utah.
“I think we are just in a slump. We are not playing confidently. We are playing slow. I don’t feel tired. I doubt it’s a conditioning thing.”
Tim Duncan
On the game - “I thought we moved the ball well, especially there in the first half. Like I said…a lot of credit to Phoenix…their defense was solid. They had a good game plan and there wasn’t a lot of rotation from them. We played a lot of one-on-one basketball and on a nightly basis we do pretty good by that…tonight we didn’t.
On the fourth quarter - “Defense was solid enough, we just couldn’t sustain miss after miss. A lot of that falls on me…I got a lot of shots in the fourth quarter…what I felt were good looks and they just didn’t go down for me. Credit to Phoenix for pushing it right back at us and scoring the ball. We just gotta find a way for something to go down in the fourth.”
Suns Head Coach Mike D’Antoni
On the game - “Well you know, I think you see what Shaq does for us, and our defense stiffened up in the second half. It was a great win but it still doesn’t mean a whole lot except we are a bit closer to them in the standings and we’ll move on, and I’m sure they’ll regroup and maybe we’ll meet some place down the road. But we’re pretty happy with what happened tonight.”
On playing without Amare - “With Shaq we just have another option in there, and Shaq really turned it on. They had six second chance points all game and usually they have about 25. Boris did a great job, we went small, and were able to defend them and do a lot of switching so everything seemed to work tonight. Its just one of those days where we played well, and our different guys were really contributing.”
On how Shaq changes things - “Well you know he’s 7’2’’ and 325 or whatever, nobody’s knocking him off, he’s right there in your face its tough all night. I don’t want to get ahead of ourselves we played well and I think right now for San Antonio it’s a little funk about scoring and its just not against us, they haven’t scored in the last two or three games, so they’ll come out of it. But you see how we can go into him and he scores or they might have to start doubling him, and he turned it on tonight he was about the best he has looked.”
On the team defense - “We should be good defensively, we’ve got Raja Bell, first team all NBA defensively, and Grant Hill can defend, and we’ve got length, and we’ve just got a lot of different answers that we haven’t had in the past, but its being anchored now by Shaq, and that’s kind of giving everybody a little bit more freedom to get up on their man and play a little bit harder on the perimeter knowing that you’ve got a guy in the back that you know you cant shoot over.”
On a potential playoff meeting - “They’re too good for that, the same as us, you cannot win a game because some guys are a little off, some guys are this and that, and they’re too smart and too good, and Pop’s too good to even think that ‘oh ya we’ve got them psychologically’ its just not going to happen. If we do meet it’ll be a battle, and we’re looking forward to it, and hopefully we meet in the last round, I’d hate to see them right in the first round, but you know we’ll see how it goes.”
Shaquille O’Neal
On the game - “We just wanted to play through everything and suck it up in the fourth quarter. Amare along with myself were in foul trouble so the rest of the guys did a great job on playing defense and we were able to come in a hostile building and get a win.”
On how far the team has to go to be where they want to be - “Unless you’re on a team that has been there a lot, like the Spurs, when you put together a new team you never know what it takes to get there unless you’re there and you’re winning. Of course we have all the pieces on paper but we really don’t know until we go through all our trials and tribulations.”
Grant Hill
On the difference between the game before and the game now with Shaq - “Before with Duncan, we had to double and scramble as he is one of the best passers when doubled. And with Shaq, he has done a very good job with Duncan as he can guard him straight up and Tim’s such a great player that sometimes he gave Shaq a match, so hopefully if we play them again Shaq can continue to guard him the same way.”
On guarding Tony Parker - “Well he definitely gets going, but we just try to go big on him, use our length and we did it the last time we played him and we had success then like we had success tonight. We’re getting there and I think it was great this season to win three out of four games against them.”
Boris Diaw
On the game - “I thought we really kept the ball down defensively. We were really disciplined and we really forced them to our bigs and we didn’t give away too many jump shots and were able to rebound the ball which is good against a team like San Antonio. They are so big and so good on the defensive glass that you don’t want them to get two or three looks at it because they have really good offensive players, but I think we did well tonight.”
On relating to Bruce Bowen - “Due to the fact that we both are given assignments of guarding tough players, I can relate to Bruce. I think me and Bruce go about it two different ways though.”