NBA FINALS: PISTONS v SPURS

June 15, 2005

Manu Ginobili

MANU GINOBILI: Yeah, I will. I'm okay today. I'm going to be better tomorrow. So try to get ready, not only my body, but mentally, too.

MANU GINOBILI: Well, it was a matter of being every day against him, and it was tough because we know he's one of best defenders in this league, and it really helped me, because he's a guy that takes a lot of pride of playing D, not getting beaten, and he studies you a lot, too. So it was a great learning process for me from training camp to even going through the first four or five months of competition.

MANU GINOBILI: It's right above the knee. I had it for the first time against Phoenix, I think. So if I get kneed again in the same spot, it just hurts me. But I'm going to be fine, doing treatments. It's not going to limit me for tomorrow.

MANU GINOBILI: Because we didn't do too many things right. We allowed them too many offensive rebounds, we turned the ball over too much, we didn't execute that well. We made too many mistakes. We have to be ready mentally to be more focused and play with more aggressiveness, because we can't let them get us in our heels. So I think it's not only, you know, have energy and but playing well and executing well.

MANU GINOBILI: No, no. I think we're going to be fine. We've been through a lot of difficulties for the whole year. We just played a bad game. They played a good one. So we are confident in ourselves. We know we can do it.

MANU GINOBILI: Aggressively, they help a lot on every pick-and-roll, they collapse the paint. We tried to move the ball but we didn't do it as efficiently as we did in Game 2. So we've just got to give them credit and we've got to try to find the way. I think it's the fact of not playing a great game as a team, I don't think that it's so much about how they played D on me, but on everybody. And if Tim didn't have a good game, I didn't have a good game, it's tough. Tony as our go-to guy, it's going to be tough. Not many of our guys were playing well.

MANU GINOBILI: What stuff?

MANU GINOBILI: Just playing as aggressive as them. As I said after Game 1 or 2, I don't care if I score 25 points. If I score eight but I move the ball well, make less turnovers, execute better, I think we have enough weapons to score, than me or only Tim. I think if Tim is having a day off, Tony and me can score more, and either Robert or Bruce, whoever, the same if Tony is not playing well or with anybody. We've just got to move the ball better and find the open shooter.

MANU GINOBILI: It's not such a big difference. You just realize that you draw more attention and defenses prepare a little more for you. But if you think -- obviously I deal with that my whole life. Every summer I play with the National Team, where I'm the go-to guy. I played four years in Italy, where I'm the go-to guy. I was the go-to guy. So it's not that it's something so different, so new for me. It's just NBA Finals and the media, you know, is multiplied by ten, so everybody's asking questions, the same questions all the time. So it can take you out of the basics a little bit. But I don't feel that it's going to be a whole problem for me.

MANU GINOBILI: I think it's hard to prepare for something that is not the right thing for you. I think I'm ready and I'm willing to do take it. Of course, I've got too much prove. I've got to keep getting better, keep playing more solid and every game, but I'm willing to take it and I think I am ready.

MANU GINOBILI: I don't know, I never played against myself. But I'm not the one that has to be chasing him all over the place or probably for him, guarding me. I have a particular way of playing and I go to the basket a lot and hit and get hit a lot. But I think defensively, it's all Bruce Bowen, having to chase him, bump him and be close all the time.

MANU GINOBILI: Well, of course we are a different team when Duncan plays well and he's dominating, because he opens the court for everybody and we all have room, open shots and everything, because somebody got to go at him to double team. But I think we played some good games without him being dominant. So we just don't have to blame it on him, of course he didn't have a great game, okay. We've just got to go over it and all of the other players have got to step up. We just didn't have enough players to play good to succeed in such a tough arena like this one.

MANU GINOBILI: Yeah, I think we only dominated them in Game 1, but it's a big key in this game. They have very good offensive rebounders. They have got like 20, I don't know how many, but too many points off those offensive rebounds. So if we consider both teams defensive teams and we let them score 20 points of offensive rebounds and another 20 of turnovers, 40 points in these kind of games are enormous, you know, there are too many. So we've really got to improve and try to cut those both in half for having an opportunity to win.