NBA FINALS: PISTONS v SPURS

June 9, 2005

Tim Duncan

TIM DUNCAN: Unbelievable. He was great. We got a little stagnant there because he was amazing. We just stood around and kind of looked at him and he made big shots, he got on the roll there, I think early on, I think everybody had a little bit of jitters in them, a little bit of that break in them and we had to kind of get through that. A couple turnovers, a couple missed shots and then that second half there, Manu gets rolling and everybody kind of builds their confidence. Defensively we were solid the entire way, and that's what we've got to do for each one of these games.

TIM DUNCAN: Like I said, I started out, I struggled, too, starting out. Three turnovers early, missed a dunk, just things not going right. I think everybody had to kind of shake that off a little bit there and I think I was as big of a culprit as anyone. Had an opportunity to hit the glass and got a put-back or two. Got some easy baskets and really got myself rolling in that respect.

TIM DUNCAN: I think his confidence has always been there. I think it's our confidence, that's the difference, in him. I think Pop's confidence is different in him. He gets on those rolls there and Pop understands to let him go. He does things outside of our offense. He breaks things off sometimes, but you have to understand, when he's in a situation like that and he really starts to feel good, he's going to make your team better by letting him roll. He's going to find open teammates if they are there, he's going to take it to the basket if it's there. He's going to make the right decisions. I think Pop is real confident in what he does and gives him that opportunity to do it and just kind of sits back and let's him go.

TIM DUNCAN: Polite? Is that what you call polite? (Laughter). He didn't go crazy on us as he does sometimes, but he lit us up and he got into us. It was something, as I said, it's those early jitters and I think he understood it a little bit, but he didn't accept it. He really got into us and really got us focusing away from the basketball, everybody is worried about making shots and things like that. He got to us focus on playing defense and getting possessions, stop possessions and pushing up the floor and things would happen. Once we started doing that, I think everybody can got really relaxed.

TIM DUNCAN: I don't think he got that many looks. I think early on, I thought he was aggressive. He got a couple early baskets, and was giving us problems early and he got the first six points early on or something like that. He wasn't aggressive but I know he's going to be. I know he's going to change his mode coming out the next game and he's really going to attack, so we're going to be prepared for that.

TIM DUNCAN: That's hard to say. That's hard to say. I think what it's about for us is just playing that 48-minute game, playing from start to finish. I don't know if they got tired or not, but what we wanted to do was keep it on, keep pushing up the floor defensively, not give any open shots. I thought Bruce did an excellent job on Rip, running around with him. Rip's a heck of a player. He never stops moving, but I thought Bruce did an excellent job of fighting through screens, getting in front of them and only stagnating them in that respect and I think that worked to our advantage later on. Whether they got tired or not, I don't know, I can't answer that question but what we wanted to do was keep the pressure on them and keep pushing it back at them.