NBA FINALS: PISTONS v SPURS

June 21, 2005

Gregg Popovich

COACH POPOVICH: Well, I thought they shot the ball really well tonight. They did a great job. Their guards really made it tough on us. We've held Rip in check to a decent degree so far in the series, and tonight, he escaped that. He and Chauncey, who has been playing great throughout, the two of them really hurt us with their shooting. At the same time, they took care of the ball really well. I think they had four or five turnovers, so I think they showed great poise, really executed well, as I said, shot the ball very well, and that's why they are NBA champs. You expect them to be able to do that, and you've got to play very well to beat them.

COACH POPOVICH: Yeah, he made a big shot, he had been sitting on the bench for a while and came and knocked down a shot on the baseline and got an offensive rebound and stuck it back in I believe. He came in and got back to work. He didn't worry about having to sit with some fouls or anything. He got right back in the game and did his job.

COACH POPOVICH: No, I think that Chauncey was looking a little bit more for them. We had a couple of bad rotations in the first half. I think they had five of them in the first half and we had a couple of poor rotations where a couple of guys made mistakes on some of the threes. But they are not known to be a three-point shooting team, so some nights that's going to happen. They shot well tonight. What is of concern to us is that we shot 28, and that's too many. That's definitely too many. A lot of those were hurried, a matter of trying to win quickly, skipping steps. They have got to be good shots. They have got to be open threes, not hurried threes or hoping that they are going to fall. So our threes were more of a problem really than the made threes they have they had.

COACH POPOVICH: No, a couple of times, Chauncey and Rip were wide open. The rotations did not get where they were supposed to be.

COACH POPOVICH: Well, I think in general, there were times in the game that toward the end as one example where we were a bit frenetic and probably trying to do some things one-on-one instead of with the group in an effort to win a basketball game. That's real dangerous against a team that's as poised as Detroit. I thought that in that respect, we did not do a very good job tonight.

COACH POPOVICH: Well, the fact that they didn't turn it over and that we did definitely hurt us. I thought our halfcourt defense was not as sharp tonight. Rip and Chauncey both got away from us. Down the stretch, it's still anybody's ballgame and the thing -- Rasheed made a shot, people make shots, that's going to happen. But of concern is how Tayshaun got the two offensive rebounds. That really killed us. I think they scored after both rebounds, I'm not positive about that, but we had made stops and were going to get the ball back with down one or down three, whatever it might have been and they got the ball right back in both situations. I thought that was a killer.

COACH POPOVICH: You're always disappointed when you lose a playoff game so, we'll do the same things that anyone would do. We'll look at some film, see if we can explain some things to the guys. We'll come and play on Thursday.

COACH POPOVICH: No, I don't think it was -- I think you're probably trying to find something there. You know, it wasn't that different, really. More than anything, I think we were just too quick with everything that we did, not waiting for the game to come to us as individuals and then playing with it, but trying to force things. Because when you do that, there probably are not any lanes in which to penetrate. You have to let that happen, and when they are there, they are there.