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NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: JAZZ v SPURSMay 30, 2007Gregg PopovichSAN ANTONIO, TEXAS: Game Five Q. Pop, the way you used your bench the other night, was that planned or did that evolve as the game went along? GREGG POPVICH: It was planned. Q. What was the purpose of that plan? What was behind that plan? What did you think that would do? GREGG POPVICH: Well, I just think players get more of a rhythm if so many aren't playing. Come playoff time, everybody's, you know, ready to go and sometimes if you have too many short runs in a game, you don't really get into a rhythm. And by rotating one less player big and one less player small, the guys that did play, I think, got good minutes to go ahead and show if they were going to have good games or not. Better chance to have a good game that way, basically. Q. Deron Williams, you have been hoping that someone could find a way to guard him. Is he just a very, very difficult guard that is very hard to solve? GREGG POPVICH: You are exactly right. I think he's played well enough in these two years and especially this season and these playoffs, now in this third round to where he is one of those guys that you say you can't stop and you hope to limit him or make him work hard for what he gets. He's that good. He's one of those kinds of players. Q. Coach, I was going to see if you could indulge me with a question back to the past. When you first took over the team, was the decision-making process to go take over on the bench and then come back the next year a difficult process for you, or was it just something you felt it was time that it was your time to take over? GREGG POPVICH: I don't remember (laughter). Q. No recollection? GREGG POPVICH: No. I haven't thought about anything like that for a long time. Was it 12 years ago or something like that? That didn't enter my head today while I was trying to get ready for this game, trust me. Q. You were talking about going into the series, about the importance of guarding Mehmet Okur and what he meant to the team. Can you talk about how you defended him and the fact he hasn't gotten off, how that has allowed you to do some things defensively with some other guys or stay on guys? GREGG POPVICH: I'm not so sure we have done anything very different from what we normally do during the season. I think more than anything, we have been fortunate in that regard. Q. Williams was able to score. Was that partly because you don't want to give other guys just open shots -- GREGG POPVICH: No, no, no. It is mostly because he is a hell of a player. That's why he is scoring. I mean, he scored at transition. He has gone to the rim. He has pulled up in transition. He's shot threes. He has run the pick-and-roll well. He is just a heck of a player. That's why he scores. End of FastScripts |
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