NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: SPURS v SUNS

May 23, 2005

Gregg Popovich

COACH POPOVICH: It didn't blow up at all. Just sore, but it didn't get any worse swelling-wise or anything like that. So I think he's in good shape.

COACH POPOVICH: No, I don't like talking to him much. As long as he shows up. I don't want to be his friend. If he shows at the game I am a happy camper, that's about it.

COACH POPOVICH: Brent was a big key for us because he helped our spacing so much. He was aggressive looking for shots. That's why we brought him. When he does that we're a much better basketball team and obviously gives us some depth and we need to have somebody coming off the bench that can do that. He did it last night. So hopefully he will be able to continue that.

COACH POPOVICH: Maybe 40 times.

COACH POPOVICH: Maybe I am an idiot, but the stats that you get are total bologna as far as I am concerned, not just here in Phoenix, but everywhere. Everyplace we go it says fast break points, second chance points. I still can't figure out how they do it. Because I can describe three 3s that Jim Johnson got in transition last night. Amare got a dunk in transition. So we're at 11 already and the thing said 6 in the stats the other night. We totalled 16 ourselves looking at the film. So coaches and stat people do it differently. They did much better in transition than one would think just looking at the stat sheet last night. I just thought I should tell you.

COACH POPOVICH: They were much better in transition than you would think by looking at the stats.

COACH POPOVICH: That's for sure we got them into a half-court game. Just because we won the game doesn't mean that we got them to do all these different things. People do that all the time, you win by a couple of points and everything you did was really good and everything they did was just they were different. It's bologna. Their pace was the same as it always is. We're not going to change their pace. If Steve Nash takes a vacation their pace will change, but he's going to be here and it didn't change. We just made a few more shots, did a couple more things.

COACH POPOVICH: That's because they are too good. We can't -- can't keep them at 80 or 85, it's not just going to happen. Our pace is not as quick as the Suns, but we're a pretty versatile club, I think we can play a half-court game and we can get out and run with Manu and Tony, so we pretty much adjust to what we're playing. And with Phoenix we know it's going to be a faster game with more possessions and we're willing to do that.