NBA FINALS: PISTONS v SPURS

June 21, 2005

Larry Brown

LARRY BROWN: No. I mean, all that stuff's over. I've said this, since we've gotten involved in the playoffs, it's been a pretty special experience. You know, you look at the Indiana series, they were two teams just trying to win. There was no nothing that brought back memories of the fight. I thought the players showed a lot of respect. Then we had an unbelievable series against Miami that we were all on a tremendous high because we beat a great team. Now we're playing for a championship. I look forward and not back, so this has been a pretty special last run.

LARRY BROWN: We've been through this before. We lost a critical game at Indiana two years ago and bounced back. We lost Game 5 against New Jersey in triple overtime and everybody was down and it was probably the greatest game I've ever coached in. You know, this has just been -- I told them all, we're still one of two teams fighting for a championship; that we can't do anything about what happened in Detroit. You've got to give them credit. They made plays, they made shots, we had opportunities, but that's over. We've got to just focus on the job at hand and we'll be ready to play. You know, I have a team with great character. You don't get The Finals I think back-to-back unless you've got a resolve and quality guys. But we know it's going to take our very best effort.

LARRY BROWN: No. I'll try to lie to them or bring up some story in my career that parallels this. I'm sure I've been through this. We lost a game in the last seconds here during the regular season, came from way down, I think 80-77 and had a chance to win. But in the New Jersey series last year, we got drilled at their place the first two games in that series that we played on their court and won Game 6. I don't think when you get here you ever focus on anything negative. It's like as a college coach, being in the NCAA, one and done, there's no sense worrying about mistakes or missed shots or things you could have done differently. You just focus on the positives and things you need to get done. Those games are over. San Antonio lost to us by 31 in Game 4. Pop got them ready to play, and they did what they had to do, so think about that as well.

LARRY BROWN: I mean, this is you know, The Finals, and after these two games, the season is over. I'm just thinking of these, hopefully these last two games that we can be part of it and give ourselves a chance.

LARRY BROWN: I don't see it changing at all. We've got young players. When I got the job, Joe told me that he wanted to have a team that was going to be good for the long haul, like San Antonio. And I look at our roster, that's what we have. We have some good, young players waiting for a chance to play. You know, Ben, Rasheed, Dyess are all 30, all in the same month. Chauncey, Rip, Tayshaun are real young. So we've got a pretty good future. But I look around the league, you look in the East in particular, there's a lot of great, young teams. So it's going to be a challenge.

LARRY BROWN: I think, well, they shoot a lot of threes. They really space out and that's a big part of their game. They have got a phenomenal post player that commands a lot of attention. You look at Miami, obviously when they got Shaq, they changed their M.O. a little bit and got Eddie as a small forward, put him out on the perimeter, got Damon Jones, so they went to take advantage of that. When you have a low post presence that commands a double-team, they also have guys that can shoot the three. Everybody knows Robert, but Ginobili and Bruce, Brent Barry are tremendous outside shooters. And then they have hurt us on dribble penetration in the games that we've lost. They do a great job of drawing it and kicking. You know, that's it. I keep looking at shooting percentages of three-pointers and what they have done, they have shot a higher percentage than they have during the regular season. My hat is off to them. That's confidence and not playing to lose. I think that's a neat thing about their team.

LARRY BROWN: I'm not allowed, but anything they get done is great for our sport. So hope it's true.