duncan228
04-30-2008, 10:09 AM
Haven't found Shaq yet...:wakeup
http://www.nba.com/spurs/news/quotes_080429.html
Head Coach Gregg Popovich
On the Suns - My hats off to Phoenix, they were unbelievable. What a good basketball club – I think we were pretty fortunate in Game One and that propelled us into a good situation and we took advantage of it tonight. We had to have had good fortune to get past these guys. I can’t believe it was a first round match up; I am thrilled it’s over. The Suns are a great team. Mike has done an unbelievably great job of getting sets together whether or not Shaq is on the floor and making the sets unbelievably tough to guard. It’s even more impressive because of what Shaq can do underneath. Mike did a great job of adjusting the whole thing to get Shaq into the fold and doing what they used to do and while adding a new dimension. That’s why rebounding was so important in this series because of Shaq – we always had to give five people on the boards.
On Tony Parker - Tony has done a great job the entire series of being aggressive. He had a little trouble knocking down his shot tonight but he made a monster shot when it mattered. He was aggressive all right long, the whole team hung in there and figured out a way to win, pursued the basketball and got turnovers when it counted and kept pounding away - we were fortunate.
On Robert Horry - Robert just has a knack for it, he is a basketball player but he is an old one. But that doesn’t make him any less smart. The biggest defensive play was Bruce’s play at the end of the game. He was able to have the mental awareness to come into the game in that situation and create that turnover after not playing much was just fantastic.
On the Spurs bench - Our bench was huge. When you win you do it with your own team and having other people who contribute is always important. When we weren’t scoring, Ime came into to the game and kept us solid, Fabricio scored two or three buckets – it was huge. The third quarter we only had 15 points and we need people to help us score and we got that.
On guarding Steve Nash - Bruce gets the lion’s share of the credit on Steve. His length worked well for us tonight and he was very committed to try and make it tough for Steve. When Tony guarded him he always made it hard. Their play on Steve was important – if he would have gotten away from us it would have been a problem.
On Tim Duncan - Timmy is always somebody who plays defense and goes to the boards. He shot the ball well in the series and made shots tonight and found ways down the stretch. He is always doing blue-collar work along with the things that make him a star. He is an all around player for us in that way.
On free throw shooting - Free throw shooting has historically been a weakness. This series has been good for us. It was important because we need to make them because we weren’t scoring from the field all too great.
On Kurt Thomas - He is a big competitor, sometimes he makes shot and sometimes he doesn’t. But he always does a great job on defense, on the boards, pursuing the ball and is just huge when we needed it. Having him here has really helped our team. We wouldn’t have gotten through this series without him; we couldn’t have gotten it done.
Tim Duncan
On playing against their bigs - “Unbelievably tough. They threw a lot of different things at us, obviously with Shaq with his size and then Amare and Boris also did a very good job down there. They had a good rotation of big guys and were very physical all series. I’m just happy we’re done with them honestly.”
On the fourth quarter - “It was back and forth the entire game and we were just lucky that our defense stepped up for us and made some plays. As good as they are offensively and as many weapons as they have, we just had to find a way to make a stop here and there. We had guys helping make shots on the other end but defensively is what turned the game for us.”
On San Antonio’s free throw advantage - “It was a part of our strategy the whole time to put Shaq on the line and see if we could get something happening there and maybe stall out their offense a little bit. I thought it worked pretty good for us and obviously when we got our chances at the line, Tony was big for us and Manu down the stretch is always our main free throw shooter. So when we can connect on free throws it makes everything else that we do that much easier.”
On the importance of experience - “There is no substitute for experience. Guys don’t panic, we don’t for the most part take bad shots. We come down, we execute, we make the right plays and take the right shots, they don’t always go in but we put ourselves in situations to win games down the stretch. We do it by making the right decisions and that comes from experience and from being together and from knowing what you want out of those situations.”
Tony Parker
On how he’s feeling physically after the series - “I’m banged up…I got a lot of bruises. I am very happy we won tonight and I’ll try and get some rest because I really need it.”
On the team’s fourth quarter play - “It was huge because we had a very bad third quarter. We were up nine and we didn’t play very good offense and our defense was breaking down. They were getting some easy 3’s and some easy lay ups so in the fourth quarter we had to treat it like a Game 7. It was huge for us to win this game and make sure we get some rest. So we played better in the fourth quarter and got the stops that we needed. Robert had a big steal and then Bowen had a big steal at the end against Steve Nash.”
On the Spurs’ defense - “Our team always plays good defense. So we are very proud of that and tonight we showed it in the fourth quarter and we made stops when we needed it.”
On Tim Duncan - “I was just happy that he stayed aggressive. Sometimes he hesitates and takes the outside shot and tonight he took 28 shots and that is what we need from him. We need him to be aggressive and if he needs to take 15 outside jump shots, we’ll live with it. He was very aggressive, he’ll keep going and in the fourth quarter it paid off.”
On New Orleans - “It is going to be a great matchup. They’re a great team, a very young team. They have two all stars with Chris Paul and David West, so it’s going to be a very good series. In the season we went 2-2 with them so we are going to have a lot of work and it’s going to be tough.”
On the hard foul from Raja - “That was nothing. Raja didn’t try to hurt anybody and he was just making sure I wasn’t going to get an easy lay up.”
Head Coach Mike D'Antoni
On the Spurs winning the series - "You definitely have to compliment the Spurs. Gregg did a great job and we went up against a team that knows how to win. Every time we had a chance to close out a half or a game, they got the best of us. They are the defending champions. Above all, my guys were great this year. We had to switch gears and they did everything I asked and played as hard as they could but we just couldn’t get it done. It’s tough to come back when you get into a big hole – the things that needed to be right tonight went against us. That happens, this is nobody’s fault, being down 3-1, it was just inopportune tonight."
On Steve Nash - "Steve is one of the best players on earth. Running the offense through Boris my have thrown him off. When we do that through Boris, we are a different team. We had to switch identities and that takes adjustment periods for everything you do. We have to adjust or change the points of reference on the floor, ball movement on the floor – you are effected without a doubt."
On Hack-A-Shaq - "I thought Shaq was great and Brian made his free throws too. I don’t think that hurt us. We shot 42% tonight but we had to shoot a little bit better, I didn’t think we made the big plays at the big moments and they did."
Amare Stoudemire
On losing to the Spurs in the playoffs again - “It seems like every time we get to the playoffs we play the Spurs, and they beat us every time. They’re well-coached…they’ve got solid players…they understand what it takes to win. They were the better team.”
On fourth quarter mistakes - “When you turn the ball over and make mistakes you’re asking for a loss. It’s that simple. We gotta be a lot more precise in what we are doing, especially down the stretch. That’s when the game is won.”
On D’Antoni’s future with the team - “I have no idea. That’s not my focus at all. My focus is to improve as a player. Everybody is going to go home with their families, and they need to give themselves a self-check. That’s my focus. I’m going to go back and reflect on this season and on this series and improve as a player. I guarantee you I’ll be a better player next season.”
On the Hack-A-Shaq - “I don’t think that’s why they won at all I just think that they were precise in what they did. They played Spurs basketball. They knew exactly what they wanted offensively. They knew who they were going to. They played that way all season.”
Steve Nash
On fourth quarter mistakes - “We just were out of sorts…we didn’t play well. We didn’t run sets that we were used to running. We improvised a bit too much. We probably should have calmed down a little bit. I’ll take responsibility for that. I know I made a couple of key turnovers that cost us. We didn’t deserve to win.”
“That’s why they are the champs. That’s the difference between the two teams. I think on paper we have more talent than they do, but they’re experienced. Their commitment and understanding of what they want to do is greater than ours. Their ability to play together and make small plays at both ends of the floor and do the little things is unsurpassed. That’s why I think a team like them has won as many championships as they have.”
On this group getting over the hump - “I think you gotta look back to Game 1. We played better than they did. We did everything we had to do except for nurse that lead at the end of the game. Instead of being up five, we were up three at the end of the game and they made a couple of threes. Not only did they win the game, but they also got a lot of confidence and momentum from that.”
On bringing in Shaq to beat the Spurs - “I think we got a lot of tweaking to do. We threw this together a couple months ago. That’s not a lot of time when compared to the team that just beat us. While we showed moments of superiority, when it came down to the crunch, their familiarity, their toughness, all those winning characteristics really showed through. We really need to come out with some new ideas.”
Raja Bell
Losing to the Spurs - “The Spurs were the better team tonight because they do all the little things. I don’t think the Spurs are better across the board talent wise or ability wise but tonight they were a better team than us. The Spurs deserve to keep playing and we will go home. It’s not always about making the shot, sometimes it’s the little things like attention to detail, execution, game plan, and commitment the Spurs have all those qualities and they make big shots that’s what makes them the better team.”
Fourth quarter collapse - “I very surprised with the lack of fourth quarter production however at the same time I shouldn’t be. The fourth quarter has plagued us the entire series and it’s a very unfortunate thing because I feel that we are a better team than what was projected but when you add all the intangibles and all the experience the Spurs have they are the better team.”
Getting over the hump - “We need to focus on little thing to become better. We have the best roster in the league and we know how to score but we don’t do the little things nearly enough to get over the hump. You need the little things to beat a team as good as the Spurs during the Playoffs.”
On Coach D’Antoni - “Coach D’Antoni has been a great coach as long as I have been on this team. In any other franchise fifty plus wins is considered a great season. Its very unfortunate that we were beaten by the Spurs again during the first round however, Coach D’Antoni has been great for this team.”
http://www.nba.com/spurs/news/quotes_080429.html
Head Coach Gregg Popovich
On the Suns - My hats off to Phoenix, they were unbelievable. What a good basketball club – I think we were pretty fortunate in Game One and that propelled us into a good situation and we took advantage of it tonight. We had to have had good fortune to get past these guys. I can’t believe it was a first round match up; I am thrilled it’s over. The Suns are a great team. Mike has done an unbelievably great job of getting sets together whether or not Shaq is on the floor and making the sets unbelievably tough to guard. It’s even more impressive because of what Shaq can do underneath. Mike did a great job of adjusting the whole thing to get Shaq into the fold and doing what they used to do and while adding a new dimension. That’s why rebounding was so important in this series because of Shaq – we always had to give five people on the boards.
On Tony Parker - Tony has done a great job the entire series of being aggressive. He had a little trouble knocking down his shot tonight but he made a monster shot when it mattered. He was aggressive all right long, the whole team hung in there and figured out a way to win, pursued the basketball and got turnovers when it counted and kept pounding away - we were fortunate.
On Robert Horry - Robert just has a knack for it, he is a basketball player but he is an old one. But that doesn’t make him any less smart. The biggest defensive play was Bruce’s play at the end of the game. He was able to have the mental awareness to come into the game in that situation and create that turnover after not playing much was just fantastic.
On the Spurs bench - Our bench was huge. When you win you do it with your own team and having other people who contribute is always important. When we weren’t scoring, Ime came into to the game and kept us solid, Fabricio scored two or three buckets – it was huge. The third quarter we only had 15 points and we need people to help us score and we got that.
On guarding Steve Nash - Bruce gets the lion’s share of the credit on Steve. His length worked well for us tonight and he was very committed to try and make it tough for Steve. When Tony guarded him he always made it hard. Their play on Steve was important – if he would have gotten away from us it would have been a problem.
On Tim Duncan - Timmy is always somebody who plays defense and goes to the boards. He shot the ball well in the series and made shots tonight and found ways down the stretch. He is always doing blue-collar work along with the things that make him a star. He is an all around player for us in that way.
On free throw shooting - Free throw shooting has historically been a weakness. This series has been good for us. It was important because we need to make them because we weren’t scoring from the field all too great.
On Kurt Thomas - He is a big competitor, sometimes he makes shot and sometimes he doesn’t. But he always does a great job on defense, on the boards, pursuing the ball and is just huge when we needed it. Having him here has really helped our team. We wouldn’t have gotten through this series without him; we couldn’t have gotten it done.
Tim Duncan
On playing against their bigs - “Unbelievably tough. They threw a lot of different things at us, obviously with Shaq with his size and then Amare and Boris also did a very good job down there. They had a good rotation of big guys and were very physical all series. I’m just happy we’re done with them honestly.”
On the fourth quarter - “It was back and forth the entire game and we were just lucky that our defense stepped up for us and made some plays. As good as they are offensively and as many weapons as they have, we just had to find a way to make a stop here and there. We had guys helping make shots on the other end but defensively is what turned the game for us.”
On San Antonio’s free throw advantage - “It was a part of our strategy the whole time to put Shaq on the line and see if we could get something happening there and maybe stall out their offense a little bit. I thought it worked pretty good for us and obviously when we got our chances at the line, Tony was big for us and Manu down the stretch is always our main free throw shooter. So when we can connect on free throws it makes everything else that we do that much easier.”
On the importance of experience - “There is no substitute for experience. Guys don’t panic, we don’t for the most part take bad shots. We come down, we execute, we make the right plays and take the right shots, they don’t always go in but we put ourselves in situations to win games down the stretch. We do it by making the right decisions and that comes from experience and from being together and from knowing what you want out of those situations.”
Tony Parker
On how he’s feeling physically after the series - “I’m banged up…I got a lot of bruises. I am very happy we won tonight and I’ll try and get some rest because I really need it.”
On the team’s fourth quarter play - “It was huge because we had a very bad third quarter. We were up nine and we didn’t play very good offense and our defense was breaking down. They were getting some easy 3’s and some easy lay ups so in the fourth quarter we had to treat it like a Game 7. It was huge for us to win this game and make sure we get some rest. So we played better in the fourth quarter and got the stops that we needed. Robert had a big steal and then Bowen had a big steal at the end against Steve Nash.”
On the Spurs’ defense - “Our team always plays good defense. So we are very proud of that and tonight we showed it in the fourth quarter and we made stops when we needed it.”
On Tim Duncan - “I was just happy that he stayed aggressive. Sometimes he hesitates and takes the outside shot and tonight he took 28 shots and that is what we need from him. We need him to be aggressive and if he needs to take 15 outside jump shots, we’ll live with it. He was very aggressive, he’ll keep going and in the fourth quarter it paid off.”
On New Orleans - “It is going to be a great matchup. They’re a great team, a very young team. They have two all stars with Chris Paul and David West, so it’s going to be a very good series. In the season we went 2-2 with them so we are going to have a lot of work and it’s going to be tough.”
On the hard foul from Raja - “That was nothing. Raja didn’t try to hurt anybody and he was just making sure I wasn’t going to get an easy lay up.”
Head Coach Mike D'Antoni
On the Spurs winning the series - "You definitely have to compliment the Spurs. Gregg did a great job and we went up against a team that knows how to win. Every time we had a chance to close out a half or a game, they got the best of us. They are the defending champions. Above all, my guys were great this year. We had to switch gears and they did everything I asked and played as hard as they could but we just couldn’t get it done. It’s tough to come back when you get into a big hole – the things that needed to be right tonight went against us. That happens, this is nobody’s fault, being down 3-1, it was just inopportune tonight."
On Steve Nash - "Steve is one of the best players on earth. Running the offense through Boris my have thrown him off. When we do that through Boris, we are a different team. We had to switch identities and that takes adjustment periods for everything you do. We have to adjust or change the points of reference on the floor, ball movement on the floor – you are effected without a doubt."
On Hack-A-Shaq - "I thought Shaq was great and Brian made his free throws too. I don’t think that hurt us. We shot 42% tonight but we had to shoot a little bit better, I didn’t think we made the big plays at the big moments and they did."
Amare Stoudemire
On losing to the Spurs in the playoffs again - “It seems like every time we get to the playoffs we play the Spurs, and they beat us every time. They’re well-coached…they’ve got solid players…they understand what it takes to win. They were the better team.”
On fourth quarter mistakes - “When you turn the ball over and make mistakes you’re asking for a loss. It’s that simple. We gotta be a lot more precise in what we are doing, especially down the stretch. That’s when the game is won.”
On D’Antoni’s future with the team - “I have no idea. That’s not my focus at all. My focus is to improve as a player. Everybody is going to go home with their families, and they need to give themselves a self-check. That’s my focus. I’m going to go back and reflect on this season and on this series and improve as a player. I guarantee you I’ll be a better player next season.”
On the Hack-A-Shaq - “I don’t think that’s why they won at all I just think that they were precise in what they did. They played Spurs basketball. They knew exactly what they wanted offensively. They knew who they were going to. They played that way all season.”
Steve Nash
On fourth quarter mistakes - “We just were out of sorts…we didn’t play well. We didn’t run sets that we were used to running. We improvised a bit too much. We probably should have calmed down a little bit. I’ll take responsibility for that. I know I made a couple of key turnovers that cost us. We didn’t deserve to win.”
“That’s why they are the champs. That’s the difference between the two teams. I think on paper we have more talent than they do, but they’re experienced. Their commitment and understanding of what they want to do is greater than ours. Their ability to play together and make small plays at both ends of the floor and do the little things is unsurpassed. That’s why I think a team like them has won as many championships as they have.”
On this group getting over the hump - “I think you gotta look back to Game 1. We played better than they did. We did everything we had to do except for nurse that lead at the end of the game. Instead of being up five, we were up three at the end of the game and they made a couple of threes. Not only did they win the game, but they also got a lot of confidence and momentum from that.”
On bringing in Shaq to beat the Spurs - “I think we got a lot of tweaking to do. We threw this together a couple months ago. That’s not a lot of time when compared to the team that just beat us. While we showed moments of superiority, when it came down to the crunch, their familiarity, their toughness, all those winning characteristics really showed through. We really need to come out with some new ideas.”
Raja Bell
Losing to the Spurs - “The Spurs were the better team tonight because they do all the little things. I don’t think the Spurs are better across the board talent wise or ability wise but tonight they were a better team than us. The Spurs deserve to keep playing and we will go home. It’s not always about making the shot, sometimes it’s the little things like attention to detail, execution, game plan, and commitment the Spurs have all those qualities and they make big shots that’s what makes them the better team.”
Fourth quarter collapse - “I very surprised with the lack of fourth quarter production however at the same time I shouldn’t be. The fourth quarter has plagued us the entire series and it’s a very unfortunate thing because I feel that we are a better team than what was projected but when you add all the intangibles and all the experience the Spurs have they are the better team.”
Getting over the hump - “We need to focus on little thing to become better. We have the best roster in the league and we know how to score but we don’t do the little things nearly enough to get over the hump. You need the little things to beat a team as good as the Spurs during the Playoffs.”
On Coach D’Antoni - “Coach D’Antoni has been a great coach as long as I have been on this team. In any other franchise fifty plus wins is considered a great season. Its very unfortunate that we were beaten by the Spurs again during the first round however, Coach D’Antoni has been great for this team.”