NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: SPURS v SUNS

May 23, 2005

Brent Barry

Bruce Bowen

BRENT BARRY: I think they are going to have the same game plan. It's really tough to ask that team after a 6 game -- the way that series went to come back after a couple of days and play a game here at home and get themselves amped back up. But having a day in between these games I am sure will get them back focused. I think Steve alluded to the fact that they got a little bit tired in the second half and we don't expect that to happen. They haven't been tired all year.

BRENT BARRY: This was the opportunity I was hoping for. I just want to build on yesterday's performance. Just any way we can contribute to our main guys, with Manu, Tim and Tony we have a great opportunity to play inside out and the rest of us just have to be ready to step up and knock down shots when needed.

BRENT BARRY: I think it reminds us of a lot of the things we felt when we played Denver in the first round. We lost the first game at home and certainly as the playoffs go on, those home games mean a little bit more. We know the type of mentality you have to come in with. It is about us reacting to the win we had here in Phoenix better than the way Phoenix is going to react to losing the game. That's kind of what our focus is going in.

BRENT BARRY: Right. I mean, we didn't know -- with Tim's ankle we didn't know how many minutes he was going to be able to play and how effective he was going to be and Manu was banged up a little bit. Finding a way to mentally stay tough and gut out that win was very important to us.

BRENT BARRY: This team has won too many times this year and are too potent offensively to not play as effective as they can in the next game. We expect them just to be very focused coming in tomorrow night.

BRENT BARRY: Yeah, again, it's not that we have moved -- that the team has moved away from where their bread and butter is about us being defensive in stopping teams. But we have the ability to do both. Like I said before, it's a nice problem to have. If you can play half court and execute and keep games in the 80s, great, that's usually where San Antonio gets wins, but to be able to have lineups that we can put out on the floor to run with teams, especially with the trends in the last couple of years where teams are playing a lot of small basketball in the NBA and pushing the tempo a lot like basketball in the mid-80s, got to have a team that can do a little bit of both.

BRENT BARRY: I really was, just because I think there was a lot of trepidation on our part in terms of how much Tim was going to be able to give us, and Manu had a really bad thigh bruise in his right thigh leg that we know was hurting him and will continue to hurt him, and to turn it around and having to come into Phoenix and play those guys, we just didn't know what we were going to get. It kind of points to how tough our team is.

BRENT BARRY: It does. You are giving Coach Brungardt a very big plug here, but certainly our training staff and strength staff getting our guys ready to play all year long and then deep into the playoffs, it's amazing what they are able to get out of some of us.

BRENT BARRY: I don't know necessarily that they are going to make too many. I really don't. I think they felt like they just didn't play the type of game they wanted to play and I don't see them making too many changes. I think they are going to keep pushing it down our throats, keep running in transition and see if they can get us on our heels and it's up to us to just make stands when we need to make them and be smart with our offensive execution.

BRUCE BOWEN: When things are going good you can't be selfish and say, hey, well, they didn't say anything about me doing this and me doing that. Hey, you won.

BRUCE BOWEN: That was it.

BRUCE BOWEN: You know, they are going to come out, you know, almost like desperation. They are at home. They don't want to lose two games at home. No one wants to, so you come out with a different type of energy, a different focus understanding that, hey, we must get this under control going into San Antonio next.

BRUCE BOWEN: I think with those types of changes there are other changes you have to make as well. In order to run, a lot of teams, a lot of players always say, hey, I want to run, I want to run, man, I want to go to a running team. Well, the only way you can run is if you get rebounds. It hard to run when you are taking the ball out. The more you pick up on a defensive part of the game and add more motion offense and, you know, you encourage kick aheads. So we have stressed a lot this year, kick the ball ahead, kick the ball ahead, get it inside, kick the ball ahead, get it inside and we have the type of players that can do that. So it just -- it's more or less of a situation where it grows into something like that instead of just coming in and saying, hey, we're going to do this and that. It's been a process from since I have been here, ever since I have come in it's basically been a process of us getting to where we're now.

BRUCE BOWEN: Yeah.

BRUCE BOWEN: No, it's not. It's really changed from walk the ball up, get into a half-court set to, okay, toss it ahead, oh, he can get it inside too. So it's like, you know, watching your plant grow, so to speak, after watering it and taking care of the soil and things of that nature. That has been going on ever since Tony and I arrived here. And then include Manu, it is a transformation from different style of basketball to another style of basketball but with the emphasis still on defense.