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NBA PLAYOFFS ROUND ONE: SPURS v CLIPPERSApril 28, 2015Tim DuncanLOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Game Five Spurs – 111 Q. Tim, what kind of luxury is it for you guys to have guys like Boris and Patty and Manu coming off the bench and contributing the way that they do from game to game? TIM DUNCAN: Well, it's huge for us, obviously. Pop has kind of structured it that way where we have that second punch coming off the bench in those guys, and we've relied on our depth for the last couple years to be the team that we are, especially in situations like this. Those guys have been playing great. Those guys have given us a huge boost. First half Patty came in when we were kind of struggling and gave us a big boost. Obviously Boris hit some huge ones down the stretch there, and Manu is Manu, and we rely on Manu to do a whole lot of different things, but we rely on our bench to come in and give us a boost. That's how we win games. Q. Talk about the challenge of guarding Blake for like the last quarter and a half of the game. TIM DUNCAN: Obviously a big challenge. Incredibly athletic and just playing out of his mind right now, just playing great, hitting his mid‑range shot, and then on the break he's using his dribble and drawing and kicking real well, passing the ball real well.  Playing with the whole package right now. Just have to try to get him out of his comfort zone and try to not let him get to the basket when I could. Got lucky on a couple of them. He missed a couple of open jumpers. But all in all, just trying to get him out of his comfort zone. Q. What was the key to your offensive success tonight? TIM DUNCAN: Mine or ours? Q. Yours. TIM DUNCAN: Just getting to spots. As I said, the first two, three games, I didn't change anything. I didn't do anything different. I just kind of worked myself into the spots I know that we need, and I get shots sometimes. Sometimes I don't, and sometimes they go, sometimes they don't. Q. Talk about Kawhi's defense on Chris Paul tonight. TIM DUNCAN: Obviously Chris for them is the main way they run their offense or the main way they get into everything. Chris made some great plays down the stretch, got an and‑one on me. All in all, we want Kawhi to disrupt as much as possible. He can't sit there and play with Kawhi because he's got great hands and he's got that great length on him, able to contest his mid‑range shot, which Chris is probably the best in the league at. Again, just trying to get guys out of their comfort zone and make them do something else, and Kawhi is great at that. Q. Can you specifically talk about the huge block that you had on Blake Griffin, and what did you see in order for you to make that particular play? TIM DUNCAN: I don't remember what led up to it, but he was coming dead at me, and it was‑‑ my choice was either to go contest the shot or give up a dunk. It's been unsuccessful a couple sometimes there where I stepped up and he was able to throw the lob to DeAndre, and just luckily enough we have enough crowd in there where that wasn't an option, and got him on the way up. Q. Basketball is often called a young man's game, and in basketball terms you're not exactly young anymore, but you seem to be playing still efficiently at this age. Do you still feel like there's a lot left in what you can do as a basketball player? TIM DUNCAN: I think a lot is a stretch, but I still feel right now I can be effective in my role, and that's all I'm doing is just playing a role on this team. Q. They say, the cliché is, the fourth game is the hardest game to win in a series. What are you expecting from the Clippers and what you have to do in this next game, Game 6, to take it? TIM DUNCAN: We want to start better. I think that's a big key for us. We haven't started well against these guys, and they're going to do exactly that. They've had great first quarters and have put us in holes. We were lucky enough to kind of fight back by the end of the first and be within striking distance and down two at halftime, which is a great situation for us to be in after our first quarter start. We expect just that. We expect them to come out with great energy and great confidence. They know they can win here. They have. They know they can win on the road. We have to start better and just sustain, because they're going to come in surges. They're going to try to knock us on our heels and attack the basket however they can. We know the aggression they're going to come with, so we just have to be ready for that. We will be. Q. Talk about the composure of the team. You said that they had a double‑digit lead in the first quarter but yet you guys were composed to come back and take the lead and then to walk out with the victory and then to come out victorious. TIM DUNCAN: I think we touched on it earlier, when that second squad came in there, Patty and Boris and those guys came in and gave us a huge boost where we were stumbling through and trying to find a way to score points. Those guys came in and made some big shots for us. I know Patty had a couple threes, an and‑one on a three, and that kind of gave us the juice we needed to get back into it. So we relied on a bunch of different guys to step up. We don't know what's going to happen on any given night, but we're willing to go 10 deep and figure out what happens from there. Q. You mentioned before and you've mentioned a few times throughout the series that you're playing a role that you're asked to play. Seems like you've had a few different types of those over the course of your career. How is the satisfaction on a personal level, this one different, compared to some of the other ones you've been asked to play? TIM DUNCAN: I'm a competitor. I want to be playing the best I can, and there have been times where I feel I'm just kind of running around for my health, but sometimes that's my role. Sometimes it's with the ball movement, with the guys that we have, with the shooters that we have, with Tony and Kawhi controlling the ball. That's kind of my role in that position sometimes. But I'm here to do whatever I have to do and be a part of whatever I have to be a part of. I get to my spots, and a series will change, whether it's from game to game or from series to series, whatever it is, you have to find your spot and be as effective as you can in it. Q. Is that hard for you to do, just mentally‑‑ TIM DUNCAN: It is at some points, but it's a gradual process. It's over an entire season or two or three seasons, not just overnight. Q. I wondered, are you in a different headspace at all this year compared to last year? Because last year you admitted that the story of trying to get back what happened in 2013 had the fire burning extremely bright. You seem pretty light out there right now. TIM DUNCAN: I'm trying to enjoy myself. I'm trying to enjoy myself, whatever that means. I know it's coming to an end, whether‑‑ whenever that time is, so I'm enjoying myself. I'm enjoying the time out here and the crowd, the energy, the situation. And if that translates into something different, that's something different then. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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