NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: SPURS v SUNS

May 27, 2005

Mike D'Antoni

COACH D'ANTONI: As far as I know, yeah, I think so. Looks good, practicing well, so see what happens.

COACH D'ANTONI: No, I think that's the best way to go. Get back to normal rotations, we can get Steve (Nash) off the ball some, that's going to help a lot.

COACH D'ANTONI: We'll see how it goes. I think it's more of his play. If he's rusty, we'll see how he's playing. I think physically he's fine.

COACH D'ANTONI: We have to change up a little bit, that's why, you know, as the series keeps going longer we will get better. But I don't know that. But normally there is a little bit of adjustment period. Joe (Johnson) is a lot like Jimmy (Jackson). It's not like we're going to play lot different.

COACH D'ANTONI: They just score more points than we do. They are not cooperating very well (laughter.) Yeah we seem to force the ball a lot. Some reason playing in a crowd, takes us a little bit to adjust to how good they are defensively. Then we adjust, we're fine the last three quarters. It's just that we're getting off to slow starts. It's something we want to do a lot better in San Antonio.

COACH D'ANTONI: That's why we're playing in a crowd. That's beating their fast break, they are getting off 30-something points, that's way too many points.

COACH D'ANTONI: I give them credit. They are doing a great job. They are hitting hard shots. They are just not missing anything. Then when they miss it, they have come up with offensive rebounds. We need to do better. Offensively we're fine, it is just defensively we're having a hard time shutting down. I really think that Joe's (Johnson) length and strength will help us in that aspect.

COACH D'ANTONI: No, no, it's so easy to say that. I don't know if there's anybody here that wants it any less than what they want it. It's not that. It's that they execute better. They have been there. This is about the fifth or sixth year they have done this. They did get beat by Los Angeles last year in the Western Conference final. They understanding what it takes to be done. We're understanding it, we're doing a pretty good job. We just have to be quick learners, get Joe (Johnson) back and understand where we're letting down a little bit in the fourth. But, no, I don't think it's will. I think it's more of experience, executing-type thing.

COACH D'ANTONI: It's not the pressure. Guys, they are good. They are doing things -- not that they shouldn't be able to do, but they do it when Ginobili goes behind his back, makes a right-hand shot where supposedly he can't go right. You have got to take your hat off and say that's super. Robert Horry is known to hit that shot. And Quentin (Richardson) was draped by him and he hits it anyway. They are doing things they got to at this point. Your hat off to them. Again, I think with Joe (Johnson) and I think with some different matchups and maybe just being a little bit more attentive on some rebounds and loose balls, then we're right there. We're talking one bucket, two buckets max. They will continue to play well. We'll just be a little bit better, then we'll be okay.

COACH D'ANTONI: No. There will be no different. We're ready to go. We were ready first game. We have been ready all year. These guys are great. These guys are gamers. I expect us to have a good game and we will see if it's enough. Again, we're not playing just any team. We're playing San Antonio, so we're going to have to have some luck, we're going to have to get some calls, we're going to have to hope they miss some shots, then we're going to make some big shots. It always comes down to that.

COACH D'ANTONI: We play how we play. I think they are doing a great job. I thought the last two games we played well. They just played a little bit better.