Post Game Quotes (Mavs Game Three)

[duncan228]

Post Game Quotes (Mavs Game Three)

Spurs Head Coach Gregg Popovich

On whether or not he thought Manu would come back to the game - “I don’t know. I didn’t want to worry until I saw him or didn’t see him. Of course you hope he’s coming back. I didn’t know it was broken until they told me later.”

On Manu Ginobili - “He’s a great player. He’s been a great player for a long time all over the world. If Dirk (Nowitzki) or Jason Kidd get hurt, people like that who are ultimate compe ors, they play unless they just can’t do it. That’s what he (Manu) did.”

On the team's play - "I thought everybody was very active. The team defense was good, we rotated well and covered people. For the most part, you’re not going to keep Dirk from scoring, but we made it tough on him.”

On Dallas going on a 17 point run in the 3rd quarter - “They went to zone (defense) and we totally stopped playing. It’s as if there was a rule that said if they play zone, you don’t have to be aggressive anymore. That was the toughest part of the game for us.”

On George Hill - “He did look comfortable. He did not look too worried about the ankle, so he must be feeling good. He was very important to us while Tony was down, so to have him back is a real plus.”

On Jose Barea (One word ot describe him and his play) - “Compe iveness. He’s a tough dude. He plays hard, plays physical. He can penetrate, score or get the ball to someone for a three. He was really good tonight.”

Tony Parker

On Manu playing with a broken nose - “He came back strong. When he came back in the fourth quarter, especially at the beginning, he had some three-point plays and got a little bit of confidence back for us. Dallas played well in the third quarter and went into the zone where we struggled a little bit. They made a great run at us, but we stayed focused and kept battling. That’s what’s going to happen against Dallas. You have to be ready to play for 48 minutes.”

On Tim's pass to him in the corner down the stretch - “I thought he was going to shoot it because I thought he was open. He had confidence in me though. I had made a shot just before that and that’s why he gave it back to me and had confidence that I would knock it down.”

On having the ball in his hands down the stretch - “Well Manu is playing great. I always tell everybody that’s why it’s so special here, because everybody is unselfish and everybody puts their egos aside. It’s different for me sometimes because I used to have the ball more, but Manu is playing unbelievable. He’s playing at an All-Star level and the ball should be in his hands. If he’s tired, then I will be aggressive and wait my turn. That’s what I did tonight, I just waited my turn. Manu got it going in the beginning of the fourth quarter, so you don’t want to change when someone is hot…you want to keep feeding him the ball.”

On their defense tonight - “I think it was our focus and our mentality tonight. We know we’re going against a team like Dallas who is very good offensively. Our defense has to be ready. They hurt us in Game 1. If we can keep playing that defense and play it for 48 minutes we’ll have a chance.”

On entering the playoffs after the injury - “I never worried. I put everything in perspective. I’ve been very blessed and very fortunate in my career. In my first eight years in the league I never had any serious injuries. I just stayed positive and kept working. I worked on my conditioning. I tried to stay in shape and just stay ready for the playoffs. When you stay ready, you have those kind of games. Now I’m 100%. I feel great. That month helped me. My hip, my plantar faciitis, all the stuff that I had…everything was gone when I came back. Right now I just play free, play my game and be aggressive.”

Tim Duncan

On Manu Ginobili - “He took the game over for a big stretch. We gave Manu the ball and he took it upon himself to take over the game. He continued to be aggressive and that’s how we will have to continue to attack it.”

On passing the ball out to Tony in the fourth quarter - “I was going down the middle and didn’t have my feet underneath me. I saw Tony and kicked the ball out to him. He made some big shots tonight. He made a lot of difficult shots like the one against Haywood where he just backed him down.”

On if he thought Manu would return - “I had no doubt that he was going to return – he has a strong nose on him. It would take him a second but I knew he would be right back in the game.”

On not making a 3-point basket tonight - “We had some good looks. I know Matt Bonner got some good looks and George did as well. It’s great that if we weren’t hitting those shots we didn’t just throw it up anyway. We attacked the basket and got to the free throw line. We got away from 3-point shooting, got the ball inside and made something happen. It was a great adjustment by the team in general.”

On Antonio McDyess' play - “Antonio has been in many battles before. He has been great for us. It is amazing the physicality that he is playing with. Dirk has been known to draw fouls but he is making Dirk work for everything that he gets. Dirk has hit some great shots. All in all, Dice has done a great job at making it as tough as possible on Dirk. Even with all of this, Dirk is a great scorer and still gets 35.”

On the team's play - “We are playing the best basketball of the year so far. We are playing our best at the right time. That’s what we wanted to do all year long. It’s frustrating all season to go through all of the ups and downs but all in all you want to be playing your best at the right time of the year.”

Richard Jefferson

On Manu playing with a broken nose - “This is a guy who beats up bats. He does all kinds of things out there. No matter what he does, nobody is surprised. When he came back we were wondering what took him so long. Then he kind of stepped right in and got his game going again.”

On the win in general - “This was a huge win for us. A lot of people stepped up. George played great. Tony hit some big shots there down the stretch. And Manu, when Dallas took the lead and then Manu came back in. A lot of different people contributed. We still have a big job in front of us. We have another big game coming up here in a couple days and you know Dallas is going to make adjustments.”

On Tony stepping up late in the game - “Our team started playing better down the stretch and we knew that once we got Tony back into it and getting him incorporated that was going to make our team that much tougher. I think that’s what you’re starting to see.”

On their defense tonight - “After Game 12 we felt like we had all the right things but we just weren’t doing them with enough energy. That was our goal the last couple games…to come out with more energy. You can still see that both of those games could have gone either way, so we have to continue doing that whether we’re up or down. They hit some tough shots tonight and you just have to keep with it.”

Mavericks Head Coach Rick Carlisle

On playing Jose Barea over Caron Butler - “It was a coach’s decision. I was going with a group that was going good. We needed penetration and that was it.”

On Jose Barea tonight - “He made good things happen. Offensively and defensively he was active. He helped us when he was out there.”

On the shot selection in the fourth - “I thought our shot selection was very good. There are going to be a few you wish were a little bit better. It was a very tense game and contested shots are one of the realities of playoff basketball. From time to time there are some fouls that are not called and those end up looking like bad shots too, both ways. We would love to get great shots. I’ll look at the film and study it and see what’s what. It’s a very physical series and there’s a lot of contact going on. Some of the shots we got were difficult and some of their shots were difficult.”

On Jason Kidd tonight - “I would love to get him more rest. He said he was ok and we needed him out there. It was my decision to have him out there. We always play better when he’s on the floor.”

On Manu Ginobili tonight - “He got some of those scores when was knifing through the zone. That’s one of the things he’s very effective at. I didn’t know he broke his nose, but I’m sure he’ll be fine. It looked like he was ok when he got back.”

Dirk Nowitzki

On the game - “It was a battle tonight. We knew they were going to be tough to beat at home and they have been a tough home team over the year. Both teams were there at the end and they just made some tough plays.”

On Parker's play - “Parker made three jump shots in a row to seal the game. You just have to give them credit, they made big shots down the stretch.”

On the run in the third quarter - “I think we showed in the third quarter that we need to speed the game up and our zone defense was effective. We got some stops and then we were able to speed the game up. JJ got the basket and Jason and I had some good looks. In the half court set, they seem to take our options away. We have to do more of the same on Sunday. We battled the whole way, we had some tough calls and turnovers but we will play again on Sunday and see what happens.”

On if fatigue was a factor tonight - “I don’t know. You can rest in the summer, I think we had enough left to battle. Parker made some tough shots and in the third quarter I thought we gave up the lead too quickly. Ginobili had some good shots at the basket and we made a couple of turnovers and bad plays, which let them right back in the game. We gave it away. Down the stretch, we had too many empty possessions. They started to double team me in the fourth quarter and we didn’t get much out of the weak side and that obviously hurts our offense.”

On playing only a few players tonight - “We just roll with whatever is going for us. Obviously with Caron and Shawn struggling, Coach decided to go with JJ in the second half and he was able to get to the basket and it gave us another ball handler. He had a good game and made an impact. Coach just goes with whoever is going that night and went with the three guard lineup. It was working for awhile but it didn’t seem to have enough down the stretch.”

On slow starts for the Mavericks - “It’s not great always having to battle back. At least we fought back and got back into the game. I thought when we were down seven points early we battled but we still would like to start better. We came out with the gate with three or four turnovers. We really battled and it could have gone either way. They just made a couple more plays.”

On the poor 3-point shooting of the Spurs - “We obviously want to take their 3-pointers away, we want to take away how they spread the floor and we want to run them off the spots they like for shooting 3-pointers. They have a lot of good 3-point shooters. They also have a lot of guys who can get to the basket and Duncan is a beast in the block and had a big game tonight.”

On pick and rolls by San Antonio - “If you play San Antonio, it’s Duncan on the block with lots of pick and rolls. In one game with series, they ran something like 80 pick and rolls with Manu. I think we did alright on defense tonight but we have to make more shots on offense and speed up the game. It’s also being able to get better looks for our guys. Defensively, we battled but you are always going to make mistakes on pick and rolls. Manu speed will beat our bigs and he can get to the basket. Overall, we did a decent job.”

Jason Terry

On the missed opportunity - “We had an opportunity to win this game tonight; there is no question about that. You have to give Manu Ginobili a lot of the credit for coming back into the game and making some great plays. We missed many opportunities we know we would like to have back but things don’t work that way in the playoffs. Game four is a big game for us and we have to get our win. The Spurs did their job tonight and now its time for us to do ours."

On bench play - "I think our bench played well and I think we out played the Spurs bench which is a plus. The only things I can look at right now are the missed opportunities with a nine point lead in the latter stages of the game. A good team, a championship team holds that lead and walks away with the game."

On game intensity - "Oh this is going to be a dog fight. Every time we match-up with San Antonio no matter if it’s pre-season, regular season or playoffs it going to be a physical match-up. You can’t expect anything else when you play San Antonio."

On mental toughness on the court - "Mental toughness isn’t a factor with these teams. Everyone on that court is tough. Both teams were very tough tonight. I mentioned earlier our nine point lead and the Spurs being resilient and fighting back. We kept the game close and got within one for about two minutes and failed to make a basket. Both team are very mentally tough and two are championship teams. I can’t wait until Sunday because it’s going to be another tough game."

Jose Barea

On team play - "I think we could have done a lot better tonight however I don’t think we played that bad. Sunday we need to play better than we did tonight."

On tonight's officials - "When you’re officiating between these two teams it can be a very hard game to ref. I feel like the officials did the best they could tonight. I really don’t pay much attention to official’s stats."

On Manu Ginobili - "Manu Ginobili is a very tough player and the Spurs are a very tough team to beat at home. You have to give the Spurs credit tonight because they played better than we did again."

[lurker23]

Tony Parker

On having the ball in his hands down the stretch - “Well Manu is playing great. I always tell everybody that’s why it’s so special here, because everybody is unselfish and everybody puts their egos aside. It’s different for me sometimes because I used to have the ball more, but Manu is playing unbelievable. He’s playing at an All-Star level and the ball should be in his hands. If he’s tired, then I will be aggressive and wait my turn. That’s what I did tonight, I just waited my turn. Manu got it going in the beginning of the fourth quarter, so you don’t want to change when someone is hot…you want to keep feeding him the ball.”

I love this quote...it's really a great example of the character of the Spurs.

It's a shame that Tony never likes passing the ball to Manu, though.

Richard Jefferson

On Manu playing with a broken nose - “This is a guy who beats up bats. He does all kinds of things out there. No matter what he does, nobody is surprised. When he came back we were wondering what took him so long. Then he kind of stepped right in and got his game going again.”

Jose Barea

On team play - "I think we could have done a lot better tonight however I don’t think we played that bad. Sunday we need to play better than we did tonight."

On tonight's officials - "When you’re officiating between these two teams it can be a very hard game to ref. I feel like the officials did the best they could tonight. I really don’t pay much attention to official’s stats."

On Manu Ginobili - "Manu Ginobili is a very tough player and the Spurs are a very tough team to beat at home. You have to give the Spurs credit tonight because they played better than we did again."

Respect to JJ...his quotes are the shortest, but they're very respectful of the Spurs.

[timvpimp]

Mavericks Head Coach Rick Carlisle

On playing Jose Barea over Caron Butler - “It was a coach’s decision. I was going with a group that was going good. We needed penetration and that was it.”

That's why your a moron. You need penetration but you were using a ball hogger. of course he doesn't jack up as many shots as turtle does because he knows that he can only shoot the goddamn ball when he's wide open, and that 90% of his shots will be blocked if they are made forcefully in front of a defender. That's why penetration is his only means of attacking. His speed sometimes turn a lethal weapon in fastbreaks but not when against the Spurs who know how to handle the rhythm well.

On Jose Barea tonight - “He made good things happen. Offensively and defensively he was active. He helped us when he was out there.”

Barea was active defensively, active but still was one big liability Spurs could easily pounce on.

On Jason Kidd tonight - “I would love to get him more rest. He said he was ok and we needed him out there. It was my decision to have him out there. We always play better when he’s on the floor.”

when your decision is to play him out there, what else could he say?

On Manu Ginobili tonight - “He got some of those scores when was knifing through the zone. That’s one of the things he’s very effective at. I didn’t know he broke his nose, but I’m sure he’ll be fine. It looked like he was ok when he got back.”

Manu is always OK as long as his ankle pain doesnt relapse.

[timvpimp]

playing Barea is just like quenching your thirst by drinking venom, you ING MORON.

[san antonio spurs]

Post Game Quotes (Mavs Game Three)


Jason Terry


On mental toughness on the court - "Mental toughness isn’t a factor with these teams. Everyone on that court is tough. Both teams were very tough tonight. I mentioned earlier our nine point lead and the Spurs being resilient and fighting back. We kept the game close and got within one for about two minutes and failed to make a basket. Both team are very mentally tough and two are championship teams. I can’t wait until Sunday because it’s going to be another tough game."

[Avitus1]

Jason Terry sounds like he could be well spoken if he wasn't a ing idiot.