NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: SPURS v SUNS

May 22, 2005

Mike D'Antoni

COACH D'ANTONI: Well, we lost. I thought it went pretty well. You always try to kind of read the situation. I thought it was working pretty good. I thought Steven Hunter was doing a good job. And it went -- so it went well. We'll continue to do that in spots. If it goes well we'll play the longer, if not we'll go someplace else. I thought the tale tonight was the first half, that we just weren't quick to the ball. Weren't quick to the rebounds and loose balls. No fast-break points the whole night. I don't think we had enough energy that we could get over the hump. This is a good team. They played great. Duncan took over at the end. Brent Barry hit some great shots. You get two tries to do that, it makes it tough. They played their game and 121 points too many. We're going to have to find a way to stop them.

COACH D'ANTONI: Well, yeah, one of them was on a loose ball rebound. That just put a dagger in us. And I thought we weren't very quick to go get it. Just didn't seem like the most important thing in the world to get the ball. It's going to come down to how much heart we have and how hard we can play, 48 minutes. Again, other than the first quarter, our offense was good. We think we can get shots. We think we can make shots, but it's going to come down, stopping people. Duncan is a little bit different case. He got off in the fourth quarter and he's going to take some special attention, but we'll just have to overall do a better job and just cutting down a few -- when you talk, we can't say, well, we'll hold them to 80 or 90. There's about four, five, six possessions that we gave them on a loose ball that I didn't think we had the necessary energy to go get it or heart or whatever you want to call it. We didn't do that. By not doing that, that's just enough for them to beat us.

COACH D'ANTONI: That's why they win Championships. Could be the best player in the game. Again, he is who he is. Nobody is going to do what he does. Parker will do what he does. We didn't do the things to win the basketball game. It always comes down to about five or six plays that I just didn't think we competed hard enough on those plays. You are not going to beat a team like San Antonio unless you do. That's why they call you champion. When they put that on you that means heart and brain and how hard we can do it for 48 minutes and we will regroup on Tuesday and we'll get it done. It's going to be hopefully a long series and you know, we have some growing up to do and we'll adjust, but it will come down to making big plays and stops and heart.

COACH D'ANTONI: Well, you know, I agree with you. That's not a factor because there's no one in there dying. We're okay. They are okay. I am not going to sit there and go we're tired we're not tired. We're not tired. It's a matter of concentration and pushing yourself over because there's no one out there later really we have to carry off the floor. That's what we have to give to a point of exhaustion. We have to do that. Champions do that.

COACH D'ANTONI: We Will carry you off next time.

COACH D'ANTONI: They might. Hopefully they won't play as well. That will be determined at the end of the series. They are pretty good team. They do run and they do get up-and-down. Again we had 6 fast break points they had 6 fast break points. We need to up that. We can do a better job there. I didn't think we were spreading out, weren't hitting on all cylinders. To beat this team who is the best team in the NBA we're going to have to play our best basketball. We did not do that tonight.

COACH D'ANTONI: I didn't think Shawn had abundance of energy. I think he was a little tired. They put Bruce on him. Duncan on Quentin. So it took Shawn a little bit out of his normal pattern. He will be back. Shawn you know, we ask a lot from him. He will be fine. I am not worried about Shawn at all.