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NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: JAZZ v SPURSMay 21, 2007Gregg PopovichSAN ANTONIO, TEXAS: Practice Day Q. How important is a day off for this team? GREGG POPOVICH: Well, a day off here and there is always good for a team to recover a little bit, either mentally or physically. You can only do so much basketball. Q. Everybody gets a day off but you? GREGG POPOVICH: There will probably be guys coming and going. I don't know what the heck they're doing. I just knew they needed to get away for a bit. They are on their own. Q. Coach, with the NBA lottery, you guys haven't been in that position for ten years now. What did it mean to the Spurs' franchise ten years ago when you won the lottery and drafted Tim Duncan? GREGG POPOVICH: I would be coaching a third grade team some place in America. Q. GREGG POPOVICH talked a lot about last year and about how you guys are really focusing on what went on in Dallas, the series and Game 2. It was a difficult game for you. Do you think there was play in that as far as your conversations with the guys and being focused in the game? GREGG POPOVICH: Never brought up as a topic. History, new season, new year, new teams, new circumstances. So not even on the radar. Q. Coach, what are some of the biggest adjustments you guys are going to make for Game 2? GREGG POPOVICH: Whatever adjustments we might make would probably not be stated publicly. Q. Coach, when Michael Finley left Dallas, I think the perception around Dallas -- GREGG POPOVICH: He didn't leave Dallas. Q. When they let him go. GREGG POPOVICH: They let him go. They decided they didn't want him. There is a difference there. Q. There is a big difference. And the perception around Dallas here is he's a guy on his last legs. What has he meant to your ball club? GREGG POPOVICH: That's an interesting situation because I am always amazed. We would go to Dallas, and Michael would be there and there would actually be some fans there booing as if he chose to leave Dallas. I always thought that was pretty ignorant. And the second notion was that he couldn't play any more, I guess, but that's not totally fair. They had some young kids, one named Josh Howard who they wanted to give time to. He is one heck of a player. That happens as people's careers move on. I think we are the beneficiary of that because he is still a great leader, a great professional, shoots the ball well for us, tries to do what we want to do defensively and been a great teammate for everybody. Q. I think in his second year, he is a lot more comfortable, more a part of the Spurs family, so to speak? GREGG POPOVICH: He meshed pretty quickly because of his professionalism. He gained everybody's respect right off the bat. Q. You have 500 more games of playoff experience. Can you talk about that? GREGG POPOVICH: It can be a factor. But it depends, you know, on the opponent also. At one point the Bulls were a team that didn't have a whole lot of experience and all of a sudden they were there. Utah can be one of those same teams. They have a lot of fine, young talent. They play hard. That can overcome experience. Experience can't become complacent or it doesn't work for you. Q. How do you think you guys executed your coverages yesterday? GREGG POPOVICH: We did a good job executing in the first half, but I thought in the second half Utah really outplayed us. I thought we lost our focus, and I thought it showed in a variety of ways. Q. (Question regarding rebounds.) GREGG POPOVICH: We were very fortunate in the fact we shot the ball. We don't usually shoot that well. So we didn't take a lot of joy in that victory because they really pounded us in some of the physical areas on the court like rebounding, as you said. We just happened to shoot the ball well and that saved us, I thought. Q. (Question regarding Tim Duncan and Carlos.) GREGG POPOVICH: With somebody as clever as Carlos, you like to keep him as far away from the bucket as you can. That's probably your first priority. End of FastScripts |
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