NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: SPURS v SUNS

May 23, 2005

Tim Duncan

TIM DUNCAN: Little sore this morning, but all in all pretty good.

TIM DUNCAN: After the game, yeah, a bit. But nothing too special, just usual soreness and getting the tape off and getting some blood in there, a little bit of pain.

TIM DUNCAN: No, no, I am fine. I am in for the rest of the way.

TIM DUNCAN: Oh, absolutely. Looking forward to that. That will be a great time, just to get those couple of days in between and get off it for a little while will help out a bunch.

TIM DUNCAN: We just want to win we don't care how we play. I think that's the common factor. If it's us holding the ball up and scoring the 90s or scoring the way we did yesterday. We didn't expect to score 40 in the fourth quarter, that's not us. That's not what we came out to do. It was welcomed and we will do it that way if we have to.

TIM DUNCAN: It helps us tremendously. We haven't been very good on the road. We have been kind of up and down, winning a bunch at home and dropping some on the road, especially in the Seattle series, although we closed it out on the road there. It's a great confidence builder for us, and I said it yesterday, we're not satisfied. We definitely want to get the second one.

TIM DUNCAN: No, because I think we understand -- I think this team understands what it is about and as simple as it sounds it's about getting the four games and we get this second one, I think we really put them on their heels and really hurt their confidence.

TIM DUNCAN: I don't think it changes a whole lot. A heck of a talented guy and I think he adds a bunch to their team, but defensively for us I don't think it changes a whole lot. I think he's great at getting to the basket, he has got that big body and can finish in there. I think that will help him a bunch, but for us, we just have to understand the personnel change and respect him as that.

TIM DUNCAN: Huge energy surge. Really using the crowd to their advantage and really trying to jump on us early. We need to sustain that and make it a 48-minute game.

TIM DUNCAN: I got to imagine they will do a lot of the same. I don't know that they will change their entire game plan, but I can imagine that they will come with some more people if they have to. Steven Hunter actually played very well against me, so I'd guess that he would play some more as he did and we will see from there.

TIM DUNCAN: Possible to hold anybody to 100 points. Points aren't guaranteed. It is just how you play the game. We're not looking at a point figure to hold anybody under. We're going to play the game and react to the game as it comes.

TIM DUNCAN: No, I don't believe so. It was a little tough going the other way, but after that first quarter after it really warmed up I felt I could do pretty much anything.

TIM DUNCAN: It would be difficult if it was the first time we did it. But we have been doing it for a while now. We have been preparing for a matchup against these guys for most of the season. A couple of other teams who have been known to kind of go slow. We have been playing with that small lineup and whoever the big guy may be, understand what we're trying to do with it. As much as it seems that it's moving, we understand what we're trying to get.

TIM DUNCAN: Yeah, absolute I have. I think it's an evolution every year, I think more this year than years past. I think beginning of the year to just see how people are playing, see how the success that Phoenix had earlier in the year and some of the teams we ran into, they weren't that small and were having that success like Seattle, knowing that we would have to adjust to that, play against that come Playoff time, I think that's just great vision by Pop and understanding of what the game is going to be like.

TIM DUNCAN: I think we helped them, we made them adjust a little bit last night. I think they played with a big lineup longer than they usually have, so we're going to do that. We didn't change our starting lineup to match what they were doing. We came out with our regular lineup and we're pretty effective with it.

TIM DUNCAN: You know what, like I said earlier, we didn't come out here to score 100 and whatever many points. Our focus is defense and trying to get stops and pushing the ball back up the floor. The opportunities are there and we're taking them when they are there.

TIM DUNCAN: We're not concerned at all. We're not playing for the space. We're going to play if it's there.