NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: SPURS v SUNS

May 28, 2005

Mike D'Antoni

COACH D'ANTONI: We just didn't -- they got us rattled mostly in the second quarter. I think that was the big quarter, 10 points was our doing and their doing. They are a great defensive team. Seemed like we just got rattled and really played in a frenzy, just really tried to drive everything, force everything, and little bit of a mirror of the game that we played down here at the first of the year. Settled down in the second half and gave us a little bit of a chance. But they just played longer, tougher and smarter than we did.

COACH D'ANTONI: Only thing -- obviously they are a good team, so they make it very difficult to do anything. But at the same point I just think we get into a macho kind of thing that I have got to show you and it's almost when we grab a rebound we don't make the effort to run. We just kind of like, we're fighting people and knocking them off or whatever. And we don't make that extra effort to go, we talked about it, also the ball just got stuck, got stuck in peoples hands. Everything is a one-on-one, I am going to be down your throat kind of thing. That's not going to make it against this team. We talked about it at halftime. We did a lot better job in the second half. We got into some plays, finally executed a little bit, got some easy shots. But it comes down to it's not -- almost like we're playing against them to show our manhood where, you know, we just need to play Phoenix Sun basketball. Can't worry about what they do and make little bit extra effort to run and get away from us. We're trying to get into clinches with them and slug it out and we're not going to do that.

COACH D'ANTONI: He's (Marion) just struggling. You have to talk to him about it. Seems like he just hasn't found his rhythm a few games. Maybe it's them, maybe it's us. Shawn will have to come back and respond the next game. We definitely need everybody for this Game 4.

COACH D'ANTONI: We got same the same as we got all year, that's not what is hurting us. Steven Hunter, I probably should have played him more first half. He did a pretty good job. We have to look at that one. Jimmy (Jackson) and Steve (Nash) are our two guys, that's what we have been going with all through the playoffs and probably the last three months of the season. We're okay there. That's not where we're getting beat.

COACH D'ANTONI: Good in spirits, just not tough enough. We didn't play tough enough, not for 48 minutes, not like they did. Kind of set a little bit of a tone, the jump ball. They only done it three times in a row on us. You would think third time you would think Ginobili might get it. They are tougher right now than we are. We're going to have to find it in our -- one day and a half to come back and make a game out of it and try to win one. I know that we won't quit as we showed the second half, we'll come back. We have just got to do it for 48 minute and for some reason we're not doing it for 48 minutes.

COACH D'ANTONI: You will have to ask him a little bit of what he thinks, but we just over penetrating and we just didn't get in open court. We have all these cross matches and everything. We didn't run. I know they scored a lot of points especially in the first, but we didn't -- we haven't made the effort to get the ball out or to run, some reason we're just not playing with the same kind of abandonment that we had done all year. That hurts Steve (Nash). He was probably over penetrating, getting too low. We have got to keep it out there. They are long in there. You have to talk to him. Can't be superman every night.

COACH D'ANTONI: Doesn't help to always be behind ten points. At the top two minutes, being down two or three. Bottom fell out obviously .

COACH D'ANTONI: (Laughs.) Seems like it. It's pretty good insight. I hate to be the one that's complementing -- we still got one game.

COACH D'ANTONI: They are playing very well. Gregg (Popovich) does a great job, and you talk about Ginobili and Duncan, they are playing as hard as I have seen anybody play and they are good on top of it. I don't mind the bad guys playing hard but when you got the good guys playing hard it makes it a lot tougher.

COACH D'ANTONI: No. Not one guy that's going to give up. It's not even going to be close, we're going to come out with everything we have got. No one wants to be swept, no one wants to have that on them. And we will lay it on the line. It's not going to be a problem.