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NBA PLAYOFFS ROUND ONE: SPURS v CLIPPERSApril 19, 2015Gregg PopovichLOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Game One Clippers – 107 GREGG POPOVICH: How much? Considerable. A lot. Q. Did you have to change your approach to how you attacked them because of his cleaning things up the middle? GREGG POPOVICH: No. Maybe we should have. Q. Doc had mentioned that times‑‑ he said we should call it Hack‑a‑Shaq out of honor of O'Neal. But when you intentionally fouled D.J., DeAndre, that it helped them a little bit and it slows the game. Do you weigh those sort of factors in when you're choosing to make that kind of play? GREGG POPOVICH: I do. Q. And tonight didn't seem to go to it a lot. Just wasn't in the strategy tonight? GREGG POPOVICH: No. Q. There seemed to be some good ball movement with your team. There were some other times where they seemed erratic or out of your control. Could you talk about that, please? GREGG POPOVICH: What you said is correct. What do you want me to talk about? Maybe I can help everybody by just making a statement. Would that help? Because these questions are unbelievable. The game was‑‑ their defense was better than our offense. That's the bottom line. Their aggressiveness, their physicality, their athleticism really hurt us offensively. The first half I actually felt decent at halftime. We missed six free throws, gave up 13 points off turnovers and it was a six‑point game. We shot 3 for 14 from three, and I thought, for playing that poorly we were in the game. Then they had that run, but I thought it was their defense, not just Jordan. He's part of their defense, but I thought everybody did a great job. Perimeter‑wise they denied in passing lanes, they got up into us. You know, we still had a good number of assists, but their close‑outs on our threes, all that sort of thing, was better than our offense tonight, and that was the bottom line for the game. We obviously missed a lot of free throws but they did, too. Neither team shot well from the line. Does that help? Q. That was nice, thank you. Were you comfortable with the tempo‑‑ GREGG POPOVICH: I was really comfortable most of the night. Q. The suit was nice, but were you comfortable with the tempo of the game and would you be comfortable with that going forward through the rest of the series? GREGG POPOVICH: We have to have pace. They play with pace, we have to have pace. We can't come down in the half court and expect to beat people. We're not that athletic. We have to have pace to score. Q. How is Tony doing health‑wise? GREGG POPOVICH: He tweaked his ankle. He got over‑‑ he re‑taped it and he's fine. He'll be ready to go on Wednesday. He's not hurt or anything, but he did tweak it at the time. Q. And the thigh, is it just a bruise? GREGG POPOVICH: Yeah, he got a knee in the thigh. Q. Was it the plan just to play at Tiago four or five minutes and then send him in and get that calf wrapped both halves? GREGG POPOVICH: Yeah, we just wanted to give him some minutes so Baynesy didn't have to play the whole game. He gave that to us and he'll be in a little bit better shape on Wednesday hopefully. Q. What do you feel like you need to do better in order to beat the Clippers in Game 2? GREGG POPOVICH: You're serious? You want me to‑‑ we have to do lots of things better. It's basketball. Q. What are those things? GREGG POPOVICH: You're kidding. We have to shoot free throws better. We have to shoot from three better. We can't turn it over as much. We have to get back in transition better. Does that help? Q. Good job. GREGG POPOVICH: I hope it makes you look good. Q. Can you talk a little bit about the play of Kawhi Leonard tonight and what your thoughts are on that? GREGG POPOVICH: You know, he didn't have a great night, but he tried. He competed. I thought their defense was, again, better than our offense. Their double teams on him really hurt him. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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