NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: SPURS v SUNS

May 22, 2005

Tim Duncan

TIM DUNCAN: It did pretty good tonight. I felt pretty good. First quarter was a little stiff. Didn't have much pop, not really confident on it. After that, it really warmed up, felt pretty good.

TIM DUNCAN: Yeah, a little different. That's not the kind of quarter that we would expect in a game like this. We wanted to stay in the 20s. Even keep them below that if possible. Not a game we expected, but one we'll take. We're going to get an opportunity, these guys are going to get opportunity. If we move the ball and we're in attack mode. I thought Manu was great tonight, Brent was great tonight. He was great taking shots when they were there. Shot with confidence, knocked them out. Not a situation we expect to be in, scoring that many points in the fourth quarter, but an opportunity we'll take.

TIM DUNCAN: Yeah. Got a little frantic there for a little while got away from us a little while. Jim Jackson hit a couple of threes in that third quarter that put them ahead. All and all I think we were pretty comfortable with the pace. We would love to play a little more controlled, but opportunities are there, moving the ball and we're taking shots. We're not forcing things. That's the kind of game we want to play.

TIM DUNCAN: Not something you plan, honestly. Steve Nash and Amare, they both played great games. Shawn never got going. I thought Bruce did a good job on them. Didn't give him the shots that he usually got. The shots that he did get, I think he just out of rhythm at that point and he missed a couple of shots. I expect a much better game from him next time. We'll take a game like that again. We'll defend the best we can, but he's going to make some shots. We're not going to hold him down for the entire series like that.

TIM DUNCAN: After the first night it was a question, but after yesterday I felt pretty good moving around, got in here a little early and went to the practice court, felt pretty good. I knew I would be able to go out and play. I didn't know how it would react after some time, but it turned out that it felt pretty good and Pop left me in there and got to play my regular minutes and just kind of went from there.

TIM DUNCAN: At halftime I was really worried about that, worried about going in the locker room and it freezing up. I went in there got in the whirlpool to keep some heat on it, and actually sat in the training room while we had our meeting, got retaped and went back out. Got out there with like a minute left on the clock. Just trying to keep it moving keep it warm didn't want to freeze it up like it did in the first quarter. It felt pretty good and I forgot about it played through it, that was the best part about it.

TIM DUNCAN: It's a little nerve-wracking at times because, you know what, you get shots, you take shots, and it's not a game that we usually play but if the shots are there, we have got guys that will take them and make them. We want to play games in the 90s and the 80s, but when opportunities are there, we're going to take the shots. I thought we did a great job of mixing the tempos, playing controlled at times and when the opportunity was there to do it we pushed it back out.

TIM DUNCAN: Huge for us. We're going to need some great play from guys, continued great play from Rob. He has been playing incredibly entire post-season. We're going to need Brent to continue to do what he does. Give us some time there. We're need guys to step up. I thought also, not a bench guy, but Nazr was great tonight. We're going to need another guy like Rasho or Mass to come in there and fill some time because we might get some foul trouble or whatever else. Our bench is going to be huge for us.

TIM DUNCAN: It's great, but we don't want to look too far ahead and say you know what, we got one, let's go back home like this. We would love to go out there and get this second one, really put them on their heals. That's our focus. We're happy to get this one but we're not overly ecstatic. We want to really hurt them here and get that next one.

TIM DUNCAN: It might have thrown them off for a couple of possessions. I thought they made adjustment, especially second half they lifted Kouwe and got him up on the top of the key there trying to get him some looks. As I said, I thought Bruce did a really good job of denying Marion the ball and not giving him the back doors and some of the easy stuff that he usually gets. And whether it threw them off or not they will be ready for it next time. Whether we decide to go that way or not, and it's all about adjustments on the fly. So I can't imagine that it threw them off that much.