NBA FINALS: PISTONS v SPURS

June 11, 2005

Tony Parker

TONY PARKER: He had a very good game. He hit some pretty tough baskets early in the game, got his confidence going. He was the only one that was scoring for Detroit, so we just have to make sure we slow him down in Game 2 and try to be more aggressive against him and don't give him anything easy.

TONY PARKER: Well, I think it's just Pop's philosophy to make sure we get some stops and starts with defense, and everything starts with defense with him and we're very focused and concentrated, try to stop what they do best. And so Detroit, it's slowing down Chauncey and Hamilton and we're going to try to do the same thing, but maybe they will play different, we'll see.

TONY PARKER: His defense is huge. He gives us a lot of energy. When you see a guy like that out there, it makes you want to play defense and pressure everybody. He's just great, you know, to have a guy like that that brings it every night, even if he's off, we don't care, we're going to play the same D and try to slow the best players down. And he did a great job in Game 1 against Hamilton.

TONY PARKER: Same thing. He plays the same way. He only plays one way, it's aggressive defense and get fouled all the time.

TONY PARKER: The what?

TONY PARKER: No, just focus on the NBA Finals now. I'm sure the players will focus on that, but we'll see after the series is finished.

TONY PARKER: It's defense, Pop always liked defense and it's always going to be our philosophy, it's just against Phoenix, we had some adjustments to make and try to play a little bit different and use the transition and fast break a little bit more because we knew that we had to score points to beat Phoenix and that's what we did. Now we're playing against Detroit and they play very physical, aggressive, so same thing, that's what it is, the playoffs, it's adjustments and it's more our style of basketball, Detroit than Phoenix.

TONY PARKER: We came along way with Pop our first two years, he was always screaming at me, like he was hard to take sometimes, getting all red and getting crazy. Now, you know, we can see that we've got a great relationship and we understand each other. I know what he wants on the court and that's why I think I feel more comfortable with the ball in my hands and I know that at the end of the day I'm going to do more good stuff than bad stuff. We're going to make mistakes but he's pretty cool now. He understands and he's pretty flexible, and you have to give him credit for that because he adapts to my style of playing and to Manu's style of playing because Manu was crazy when he arrived, and he and Pop had some hard times and he's just perfect with Manu and you can see the result, Manu is playing amazing. That's definitely a lot of credit from Pop, giving us the freedom to play our game.

TONY PARKER: No, that's not true, because his offense, people have to be scared of something and I think they are scared about his 3-pointer in the corner. So he's still I think dangerous in the offense because he's got that weapon, you know. He's very consistent with that three-point shot and that's energy right there, because it's not an easy shot. You know, defense, you use a lot, a lot of energy. So I think people just don't like how he plays D, but I'm happy he's on my team because he's playing physical.

TONY PARKER: Well, it's always going to be 50/50, when you're not shooting the ball well, you're always going to say you had a bad shooting night. I think with Bruce, it's obvious that he slows you down a little bit.

TONY PARKER: I think they are going to come out very, very physical and very aggressive and maybe they are going to change a little bit how they play, maybe give the ball more to Rasheed and to Tayshaun Prince.

TONY PARKER: I'm sure they are going to try to do something on Manu and we'll see what adjustments we have to make.

TONY PARKER: I think it will be like Steve Nash, maybe push him full court and just try to get him tight a little bit. I thought especially in the first half, I didn't pressure him at all, so we watched film with Pop and he showed me stuff he wants me to do and I'm going to try to do it tomorrow, but it's not going to be an easy task.