NBA FINALS: PISTONS v SPURS

June 15, 2005

Gregg Popovich

COACH GREGG POPOVICH: No. (Laughter). And I will spend absolutely no time thinking about it. But I thought it was a great question. (Laughter). I try to get over the loss with a little humor.

COACH GREGG POPOVICH: The way he's playing and the way he's playing last night, not much. You know, the one move he did last night, the little Danny Manning with the pump fake and the step through, another pump fake and he banked it in, he did a great job, making shots, going to the hole for rebounds, being aggressive, he was an fantastic. So in that sense, that's the Antonio McDyess that we all remember.

COACH GREGG POPOVICH: Terse is a little harsh. Humorous answer.

COACH GREGG POPOVICH: Is that our road record? 21-20? Really? It was that bad?

COACH GREGG POPOVICH: Does anybody know that for sure? Is that true? (Laughter). Well, that's a little strange, because we talked about it, usually we have a heck of a road record and we're a little shakier at home, and that's been year-in and year-out. All of a sudden this year, we were a monster at home and a little bit shakier on the road. I think the record is a little bit strange because there was a period there where we weren't whole as far as Timmy, he's very important, he missed the last, whatever games, 12, 13 games and we lost a lot of away games during that stretch. So the number is a little skewed because of that, so we're not quite as bad on the road as the regular season indicated, and if you look at the playoffs, we've done pretty well on the road. We won three in Denver and we won in Seattle, we won in Phoenix, and we just haven't won here.

COACH GREGG POPOVICH: Wait a minute, let me think about that. Got it. Sometimes I'm a little...

COACH GREGG POPOVICH: Not a whole lot. We actually gave up the 23 points off turnovers, we really did give up 20 points on the board, so it's pretty hard to feel good about that. We didn't have very many people play well. I thought we succumbed to their pressure. I thought they did a great job. What they did a great job was they sustained it for 48 minutes. It wasn't like, you know, they played a good quarter here and a good quarter there. For 48 minutes, they played like a team that didn't want to go down 3-0, and it just wasn't going to happen. And we participated in that by not executing, for instance, press offense, by not making an extra pass, playing in the crowd, that sort of thing. So there's some things that we can do to help ourselves, whether they impress you or not. It's not like they didn't try to play hard in San Antonio, but we executed. Why didn't we execute here? I don't know. If I knew, we would have done it better.

COACH GREGG POPOVICH: He's hardest on himself. He didn't have a good game last night but I won't even talk to him about it for tomorrow night. I mean, that's the way he is. He will pound himself, he will go over it in his head, he watched the film with us today, and he knows what he's got to do to respond. And he'll do everything in his power to do that, and he usually does respond very, very well.

COACH GREGG POPOVICH: Manu is fine. He took a hit and it bothered him for a while. It's sore, so on and so forth, but he'll be fine for tomorrow night.

COACH GREGG POPOVICH: You know, they played him similarly. They switched a lot and switched out on to him. I think they did a better job last night of other people crowding the lane. But he was in a different game last night. You have to understand about rhythm a little bit with players, you know, like somebody gets quick fouls in the beginning, they get taken out of a game, they come back in and they never really get involved the same way. When he came out with the injury, then he got a couple of fouls and he came out because of that. By the time he got back in the game for any meaningful period, Tony Parker was having a good game at that time and we didn't really go to Manu much, and all of a sudden it's the third quarter, that sort of thing. So I think rhythm had a lot to do with his game last night and the other part of it was they really did crowd him and we need to do a better job of kicking it to an open person instead of playing to the crowd. And that's not just him; that's the team.

COACH GREGG POPOVICH: He does it in two ways: You know he's a very smart man, so intellectually he can figure out what went on. He'll watch the film analytically and he'll understand the game and he'll see what went on, or he did see. And secondly, on an emotional level, he will allow that cup to fill up again and play his game the way, for instance, the way Ben played last night, coming with that ferocity.

COACH GREGG POPOVICH: Yeah, it's emotional but it's very controlled. You're not going to see him beating his chest and pointing at people and doing the whole MTV thing. It's emotional but it's more out of a desire to win. It's well-directed emotion.