duncan228
05-12-2008, 11:04 AM
http://hornetscourtsidelive.blogspot.com/2008/05/spurs-game-4-postgame-quotes.html
Spurs Game 4 postgame quotes
Spurs coach Gregg Popovich
(on tonight’s game)
We had the same energy tonight that we had in game three. Defense is best way for us to play. Playing good defense fuels everything that we do. We are fortunate that we played well two games in a row and got the series even.
(on tonight’s defensive effort)
It’s always hard to tell because it can be two things - you can credit a defense and also people don’t make shots. We didn’t shoot very well in New Orleans and they didn’t shoot really well tonight. It’s never just defense - it’s a combination. I’ll just leave it at that.
(on Ime Udoka’s playing time)
He didn’t play in game three and we don’t have plan regarding playing a certain number of players we are going to play in one night. We saw the need for it and the substitutions and matchups were such that we wanted him out there and he did a fine job.
(on team defense on David West)
I thought Fabricio and Kurt did a pretty good job on West. But he may have just had a night where his shots didn’t go down. He’s a great player and it worked out tonight. Tonight is gone though.
(on Tim Duncan)
I thought Tim was aggressive; they were doubling him a lot. He has been a lot more of a quarterback in the series and is doing a good job and feeling confident, making good choices about when to involve himself an when to involve teammates.
(on Tony Parker)
Tony always needs to be aggressive - we aren’t same team if he is not.
Tim Duncan
On understanding after four games of how they’re defending him and feeling comfortable
“Yeah a bit of it. We’ve kind of known for a little while what they have been doing, tonight I just got some shots to go down and along with that we still moved the ball very well. Manu and Tony did a great job of attacking and we were just able to get a bit of a lead and kind of extend it a little bit. Honestly defensively, I thought we were better than we have been this entire series and I thought that was the difference in the game.”
On what to expect in Game 5
“Obviously it’s going to be a huge game down there. Their home court has been very good for them and their crowd has been great for them as well. We expect their energy level to be high and I don’t know if their game plan is going to change much but you know that they’re going bring it with all they got on Tuesday. We are going to have to match that, try to control the game and hopefully we can shoot a little bit better while we’re there.”
On a sense of pride being involved after being down 0-2
“Well you understand what you are facing. You understand that if you lose one of these home games, you are facing elimination and for the most part a series is over. We were lucky enough to come back here and right our ship a little bit…we feel good going back to New Orleans. We’re going to go in there and we’re going to do the obvious, try to take one and put some real pressure on them.”
On the physical aspect of the game
“I don’t know that it was any more physical than any other game. I thought defensively we were better … we’re not going to allow them to initiate everything, we’re going to have to go out there and hit first sometimes. That’s what the playoffs are about and you have to have that mentality. We got to try and be physical but it’s more of being in attack mode more than anything else.”
Tony Parker
On the third quarter
“We played pretty well in the third quarter. When we had a lead at halftime, the only thing we talked about was remembering what happened in New Orleans when we played very badly in those third quarters and so we wanted to keep it going tonight, not give them any hope and keep playing. That’s all we did and we did a good job. We played great defense tonight.”
On their experience giving them an edge in this series
“I think it helps us a little bit to a certain extent. But New Orleans is a great team, they play great basketball and I don’t think our experience gives us a big advantage. It helps us to know we have to win both games at home and we’re back in the series and that is what we did. We just did our job and won two games and now it’s back to 0-0 and Game 5 is going to be huge. They are going to be at home so they are going to play a little bit better, shoot the ball a little bit better and so we have to be ready for that.”
On if they took away New Orleans confidencein the fourth quarter when Scott substituted their starters
“No, not really. I’m sure New Orleans said the same thing…we just won both games at home and now they’re going to go back to their place and play with a little more confidence and shoot the ball better so we have to be ready for that and match their energy.”
On Tim Duncan’s contribution and if he’s been struggling
“It makes me laugh when you say Tim is struggling and he’s being double teamed every single time. Tonight he just had more opportunities but he did get double teamed every single time. He’s very unselfish so he’s not going to force it and he is going to trust his teammates to make the right decisions and just make baskets. They are forcing us to take a lot of threes and we just have to have confidence and knock them down. I don’t think he’s struggling, I just think he’s trusting his teammates.”
On the Spurs’ defense
“Our defense was solid tonight. We are trying to do a better job on Chris Paul and David West but our help defense was great tonight and so we have to play the same defense on the road now.”
Robert Horry
(on the Playoff record)
“The win is the most important thing. I’m been very fortunate be on some great teams. I’m just happy to be on this great team. I have to thank Pop and the entire Spurs organization to allow me to come here.”
(when asked, “Tim says you’re good at picking teams.”)
”Well, true. I was going to try to deny that, but it’s true. I’ve been very fortunate
“We showed age, and by that I mean experience. We did our job by not being rattled. They did there job and holding home court and we did our thing on our court and now we have to find a way to win on there court. Because if we don’t it’s over, we just got to keep battling. I think that these two games taught us a lot. With the experience that we have we’re able to adjust on the fly and we’ve been abler to do that.”
(on the teams defense)
“That’s all we preach around here is defense. If we don’t’ get the defense done we don’t win. The two games we played over there we didn’t do a good job on defense and they blew us out. But the thing is that we were able to adjust at home, so hopefully it will carry over when we play over there.”
(on Tim and Tony)
“They have both been the catalyst for us. Tim he’s been our catalyst all year, he’s our go to guy. The thing about this series is that they’re not letting him do too much with the basketball; but he’s been a great quarterback for us. Tony is carrying over from what he did last year in the playoffs when he won the playoff MVP; he’s getting to the basket and he’s finding the open guys.”
Spurs Game 4 postgame quotes
Spurs coach Gregg Popovich
(on tonight’s game)
We had the same energy tonight that we had in game three. Defense is best way for us to play. Playing good defense fuels everything that we do. We are fortunate that we played well two games in a row and got the series even.
(on tonight’s defensive effort)
It’s always hard to tell because it can be two things - you can credit a defense and also people don’t make shots. We didn’t shoot very well in New Orleans and they didn’t shoot really well tonight. It’s never just defense - it’s a combination. I’ll just leave it at that.
(on Ime Udoka’s playing time)
He didn’t play in game three and we don’t have plan regarding playing a certain number of players we are going to play in one night. We saw the need for it and the substitutions and matchups were such that we wanted him out there and he did a fine job.
(on team defense on David West)
I thought Fabricio and Kurt did a pretty good job on West. But he may have just had a night where his shots didn’t go down. He’s a great player and it worked out tonight. Tonight is gone though.
(on Tim Duncan)
I thought Tim was aggressive; they were doubling him a lot. He has been a lot more of a quarterback in the series and is doing a good job and feeling confident, making good choices about when to involve himself an when to involve teammates.
(on Tony Parker)
Tony always needs to be aggressive - we aren’t same team if he is not.
Tim Duncan
On understanding after four games of how they’re defending him and feeling comfortable
“Yeah a bit of it. We’ve kind of known for a little while what they have been doing, tonight I just got some shots to go down and along with that we still moved the ball very well. Manu and Tony did a great job of attacking and we were just able to get a bit of a lead and kind of extend it a little bit. Honestly defensively, I thought we were better than we have been this entire series and I thought that was the difference in the game.”
On what to expect in Game 5
“Obviously it’s going to be a huge game down there. Their home court has been very good for them and their crowd has been great for them as well. We expect their energy level to be high and I don’t know if their game plan is going to change much but you know that they’re going bring it with all they got on Tuesday. We are going to have to match that, try to control the game and hopefully we can shoot a little bit better while we’re there.”
On a sense of pride being involved after being down 0-2
“Well you understand what you are facing. You understand that if you lose one of these home games, you are facing elimination and for the most part a series is over. We were lucky enough to come back here and right our ship a little bit…we feel good going back to New Orleans. We’re going to go in there and we’re going to do the obvious, try to take one and put some real pressure on them.”
On the physical aspect of the game
“I don’t know that it was any more physical than any other game. I thought defensively we were better … we’re not going to allow them to initiate everything, we’re going to have to go out there and hit first sometimes. That’s what the playoffs are about and you have to have that mentality. We got to try and be physical but it’s more of being in attack mode more than anything else.”
Tony Parker
On the third quarter
“We played pretty well in the third quarter. When we had a lead at halftime, the only thing we talked about was remembering what happened in New Orleans when we played very badly in those third quarters and so we wanted to keep it going tonight, not give them any hope and keep playing. That’s all we did and we did a good job. We played great defense tonight.”
On their experience giving them an edge in this series
“I think it helps us a little bit to a certain extent. But New Orleans is a great team, they play great basketball and I don’t think our experience gives us a big advantage. It helps us to know we have to win both games at home and we’re back in the series and that is what we did. We just did our job and won two games and now it’s back to 0-0 and Game 5 is going to be huge. They are going to be at home so they are going to play a little bit better, shoot the ball a little bit better and so we have to be ready for that.”
On if they took away New Orleans confidencein the fourth quarter when Scott substituted their starters
“No, not really. I’m sure New Orleans said the same thing…we just won both games at home and now they’re going to go back to their place and play with a little more confidence and shoot the ball better so we have to be ready for that and match their energy.”
On Tim Duncan’s contribution and if he’s been struggling
“It makes me laugh when you say Tim is struggling and he’s being double teamed every single time. Tonight he just had more opportunities but he did get double teamed every single time. He’s very unselfish so he’s not going to force it and he is going to trust his teammates to make the right decisions and just make baskets. They are forcing us to take a lot of threes and we just have to have confidence and knock them down. I don’t think he’s struggling, I just think he’s trusting his teammates.”
On the Spurs’ defense
“Our defense was solid tonight. We are trying to do a better job on Chris Paul and David West but our help defense was great tonight and so we have to play the same defense on the road now.”
Robert Horry
(on the Playoff record)
“The win is the most important thing. I’m been very fortunate be on some great teams. I’m just happy to be on this great team. I have to thank Pop and the entire Spurs organization to allow me to come here.”
(when asked, “Tim says you’re good at picking teams.”)
”Well, true. I was going to try to deny that, but it’s true. I’ve been very fortunate
“We showed age, and by that I mean experience. We did our job by not being rattled. They did there job and holding home court and we did our thing on our court and now we have to find a way to win on there court. Because if we don’t it’s over, we just got to keep battling. I think that these two games taught us a lot. With the experience that we have we’re able to adjust on the fly and we’ve been abler to do that.”
(on the teams defense)
“That’s all we preach around here is defense. If we don’t’ get the defense done we don’t win. The two games we played over there we didn’t do a good job on defense and they blew us out. But the thing is that we were able to adjust at home, so hopefully it will carry over when we play over there.”
(on Tim and Tony)
“They have both been the catalyst for us. Tim he’s been our catalyst all year, he’s our go to guy. The thing about this series is that they’re not letting him do too much with the basketball; but he’s been a great quarterback for us. Tony is carrying over from what he did last year in the playoffs when he won the playoff MVP; he’s getting to the basket and he’s finding the open guys.”