NBA FINALS: PISTONS v SPURS

June 16, 2005

Manu Ginobili

MANU GINOBILI: Offensively, I'm just not finding the way to the basket. They are really collapsing in the lane a lot and when we move the ball, it's just not there. We're not finding the open shots that they were there in Game 1 and 2. I think that in the first half in Game 1 and for a big part of Game 2, I couldn't penetrate anyways but we still moved the ball, we push it, try to play faster and we find solutions. I don't think it's a matter of just me attacking the basket, it's a matter of how the team is playing as a team.

MANU GINOBILI: Yeah, I was. Pop tried to run a couple of plays for me, but at the same, it's not a play that's going to revert 15- or 17-point lead, so it's a matter of us playing with more determination, wanting the game more. I think they showed they wanted the game, and there was no minute in the whole game that we were close. So it was a really ugly loss.

MANU GINOBILI: I don't think that it's so much about X's and O's. I think the determination that they showed, aggressiveness, it was the reason why they won. I think it's important for us to try to push the ball more, try to get a couple easy baskets, but today, we were not there in any part of the game. Rebounds, turnovers, passing the ball, in every part of the game, they just killed us. So even if you make some changes, you've just got to wish to win that game more than them.

MANU GINOBILI: I don't think it was so much physical, at least I didn't feel it. What I just saw, it was that it's less room. We are not moving the ball in the right way. We are not finding the open guy as we were in Game 1 and 2, so we just make things more difficult. As I said in Game 3, we have too many important players not playing well. Probably the only one that played good was Bruce, so there's no way we are going to win against a champion like that. We all have to step up, play better, with more heart and try to get that Game 5, because we all know how important it is.

MANU GINOBILI: Yes, but it's been like that against Denver. It's been like that against Seattle. So we know it's going to be like that. The other teams watch videos, too, and they know that when we penetrate so much it's harder for them. But they try to do that in Game 1 and 2, but we moved the ball better. We just were more aggressive. We don't let them slap the ball out of our hands. As I said before, it all comes back to aggressiveness and physicality that they showed.