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NBA FINALS: PISTONS v SPURS

June 21, 2005

Gregg Popovich

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS: Game Six

Q. You guys have led the league in preventing three-point makes and attempts, how do you emphasize playing that type of defense beyond the 3-point line and yet still play it inside the 3-point line as well as you have?

COACH POPOVICH: I'm not sure, to be honest with you. But we do have an emphasis on making a lot of people drivers, and for most of the season, with Timmy and Rash, having two pretty long guys down there helps us on the inside and Nazr has picked us up pretty quickly since we traded for him. We have a pretty good mix of athletic enough people on the perimeter that can get out there, force people to be drivers, and we get them to our big guys who are pretty smart about knowing what the situations are, so I think the combination of that and working on it consistently has worked for us.

Q. Regardless of what happens tonight or in the rest of the series, you guys appear to be set up on paper pretty well for the future. Can you talk about some of the moves you've made to secure players and contracts and stay young?

COACH POPOVICH: Well, we've been real fortunate in the sense of having people who wanted to stay, wanted to get signed, get it done, get it over with and having a young enough core, with Timmy obviously, as center and everything. He makes it attractive for people because he's unselfish and people enjoy playing with him. So we've been able to convince people to stay around and not move from us, I guess.

Q. On the same subject, can you talk about signing Robert Horry two years ago, I mean, was that something you thought about or it was like automatic once you heard he was available?

COACH POPOVICH: It was something that we wanted to do pretty much immediately. We sit down as a group and we discuss all of these things, the coaches and management. We have a good group to get their ideas, and he was pretty much unanimous from the beginning as far as being somebody we thought would fit in with the way we wanted to play.

Q. I know you're focused on the game, but the Commissioner assured us they didn't make their announcement a while back to be a distraction. As the Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations, do you have a general response to the fact that they have announced the agreement on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement?

COACH POPOVICH: I think it's great. I think it's great. If we can all continue our work and do what we usually do in the summer with young players and continue to develop them, it's a win/win for everybody, including the fans, better product.

Q. Is this the part of the series where the fool's gold part about the home games, and could you talk about talking to your team about not relying on that and how do you approach your team at times like this?

COACH POPOVICH: It would be trite to say game by game, so I'll try not to say that. We do focus on the task at hand in the sense that consequences aren't important in a philosophical sense. We try to make them understand that the job is to play the game as well as we can on a given night. But to do that, you can't be concerned about the outcome and what it means, if you win this, if you lose this, whether it's the 17th game or this game tonight. I think that way people can concentrate more on what they have to do, how we run the pick-and-roll, what do you do when you transition, that sort of thing. So that's what we've mostly done.

Q. Not necessarily to follow-up, but one more question, how much concern, or do you have any concern about the way you finish the game, other than the fact that it went your way, but some of your key guys were not able to get involved offensively and probably hard to expect that from Robert Horry on a regular basis?

COACH POPOVICH: Well, I think when you're playing a team like Detroit, every option that you think you might have or that you draw up is not going to be there. They are too good of a defensive club. They are very, very difficult to score on, and it's going to be many times in that sort of a contest role players or bench players who are going to have to step up. In your area, you've seen people like Herr and Paxson be the guys that do that because good teams take things away from primary players.

Q. I don't know if you would agree with this or not, but from the outside looking in, you've seemed more at ease on this process, this trip, than the other two Finals. Do you agree with that, and if so, is there a reason for it?

COACH POPOVICH: You know, maybe -- I hate to think this, but maybe as you get older you figure out that you should enjoy things a little bit more and figure out a way to do it. Maybe that's it. Maybe I'm just faking it pretty well, I don't know. One of the two, I guess.

Q. As a friend of Larry's, do you have a good sense of how difficult this season has been for him and how difficult it will be eventually when he may have to make a decision as to whether he can continue coaching or not?

COACH POPOVICH: It has been and it will be real difficult for him decision-making wise. He's had it real tough this season. We've talked quite a bit about what's been going on with him. It's hard to believe how uncomfortable he's been, many times physically, and how that takes away from what he really wants to do and the energy he wants to have to get some things done. So in that sense, it's been a real difficult year for him. But his team, you know, has sustained itself. He has really put something together along with Joe, they are really a great group and he understands that. So whatever happens, win or lose in this series, he'll have some thinking to do and some questions to answer for himself.

Q. Are there any adjustments you can make with Tim Duncan in just 48 hours between games on his free throw shooting?

COACH POPOVICH: Different from the ones that I've made previously this season or like brand new that nobody has ever heard of before?

Q. I was wondering if there's anything you reinforced between games.

COACH POPOVICH: We just want him to show up on time, that's it.

Q. Tim goes 26 and 19 the other night, and then they take away stuff, but following up on what Sam did, there's an entry pass that he misses, a tip in that maybe he could have done, maybe not, I don't know, does he beat himself up again after a victory and after going 26 and 19?

COACH POPOVICH: Did you see the hug he gave Robert after the game?

Q. I'm saying from your perspective, from what you've seen the last two days.

COACH POPOVICH: Oh, sure, that made it a little bit easier, but you can put whatever caption under that picture you wanted. You can imagine exactly what he said to Robert. The win makes it a little bit easier, but he's smart enough to know everything that went on out on the court, and I can guarantee you, he reviewed it all and he will be his toughest critic, without a doubt.

End of FastScripts...

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