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NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: JAZZ v SPURS

May 26, 2007

Jerry Sloan

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH: Game Three

Q. Just right off the bat, you guys have had three days to kind of work on some things. Is there anything in particular that you worked on with the players as far as getting ready for this game, something that might have been missed in the first two games in San Antonio?
JERRY SLOAN: Yeah, we talked a little bit about our intensity. I guess you work on that. I don't know how you work on it but that's one of the things that we have to have a little bit more of if we are going to be able to compete against them.
I think that's crucial for us. They are so good, we can't seem to get anything done in a casual manner.

Q. You have said quite often coming through this thing, it is about winning four games. You guys are down two, but do you feel like you guys have to compete on the floor with this team?
JERRY SLOAN: If I didn't, I wouldn't tell our players. I think they can compete -- that's what makes sports so interesting, is how you put yourself out there and what you expect out of yourself to see if you can play against the best, and hopefully our guys can do that. We will have to do it pretty quick.

Q. From your experience, how do you keep your team and others from reading too much or taking too much out of one win in the playoffs, and conversely, beating yourself up too much about one loss in the playoffs when one game can turn the series around?
JERRY SLOAN: I think that's part of the experience you gain by having a chance to get into the playoffs. You go through some of those things. You can have people tell you this, that and the other things.
It boils down to the more you know about yourself the better the chance you have to be able to correct those things when they come up. I have never been a big believer in talking to guys and begging them to play and that sort of thing.
The bottom line is they've got to step out there and do their job and do it better than they have ever done it before. That's asking a lot, but they get paid a lot.

Q. After all these years that Tim Duncan has been playing at a high level, what most impresses you about him and what he does?
JERRY SLOAN: The efficiency of which he plays. He just plays the game very efficient, every possession whether he is on the offensive end or defensive end. It is always interesting to see how he is to start the ball game. He is very polite and very nice to all of his players and the guys he plays against and annihilates them when he gets out on the floor.
I appreciate that about him because he is a no-nonsense guy. He just does his job and it is not a matter of having to explain to everybody in the world about how great he is.

Q. Jerry, along those lines, San Antonio has always been known as a very efficient and precise team. Are they better at that and just paying attention to detail than maybe you thought? Or have you done some things that have helped them look that much better?
JERRY SLOAN: They played the game so easy against us because every mistake that we made they have capitalized on it and just put us in tough situations.
You have to give them credit. They have tremendous experience in playing in big games. If guys miss a shot, they don't lose their concentration. It is called playing forward with our guys and try to keep them doing that. It is easier said than done with younger guys because sometimes guys struggle with their shooting and it takes four, five, possessions, a game, maybe two games, to get back to where they think they should be.
That's what experience will teach you, how to fight and do that and how to get better. Some guys never learn it. Some guys learn it faster than others.
If you go too far to double team Duncan or try to get help in there, then the guy's on the perimeter, he finds them and puts him in a one-on-one situation. We can't really play against him one-on-one because he is such a great player.
He just kind of waits with his patience, waits for you to make a mistake and he takes advantage of it.
We haven't been to that point. When teams start putting their body on us a little bit more, we have been -- you know, we have become a little bit more quick to shoot the ball. Sometimes we have a tendency to think we've got to beat them one-on-one.
We don't want to beat them one-on-one. We can't beat them one-on-one. We want to try to beat their team. We don't have a one-on-one player to go out there and say we will isolate him and play him one-on-one. We are not equipped to do that.

Q. If there was a debate about who was better Karl Malone or Duncan, what would you take?
JERRY SLOAN: I'm very prejudice of Karl Malone. I was with him all those years and he played a long time, 18 years. He was there every day.
Duncan has won championships. He has done a great job. That's a tough question for me because I'm prejudiced to start with.
I am also very, very fond of Duncan. I saw him play when he was in college or in -- I think it was -- it was with the Olympic team and the Olympic team was playing a bunch of guys and he was on the team. He was terrific then, a no-nonsense guy. I always think that's the way it is supposed to be, but we don't always get it that way.

Q. Jerry, your guys are talking about tightening up the defense and they all say --
JERRY SLOAN: I hope.

Q. They say they've got to slow Tony Parker down, got to stop his penetration. How do you guys slow him down, keep him from penetrating?
JERRY SLOAN: You have to put effort into it. I look back at the two games we've played, and I don't -- I really didn't see the same kind of determination to try to make things work as I saw us have a few times this year.
We can't play against him unless we have great determination and put everything we have in it to try to stay with him and not give them easy shots. They are shooting 50-some percent from the field, and it is very, very difficult to win a playoff game if the team is shooting that well against you, especially the way they are getting their shots, layups, and that sort of thing.
They are going to make some three-point shots, everybody knows, but you can't continue to give layups.

End of FastScripts

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