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NBA FINALS: CAVALIERS v SPURS

June 8, 2007

Sasha Pavlovic

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS: Practice Day

Q. LeBron talked about how the Spurs last night brought two, three guys at him. Obviously that's going to leave you and some of the other players open. Can you just talk about maybe the pressure you guys are feeling knowing that you're going to have to carry maybe LeBron for a few games after he's carried you all season?
SASHA PAVLOVIC: Yeah, we kind of expected that. We knew they were going to double-team him and sometimes maybe triple-team him. So we just got to move the ball and try to make the open shots and help him spread the floor for him. We just have to make open shots.

Q. And I talked to Z earlier today, and he agreed with this. He said you guys didn't take the ball strong enough to the basket; you were too soft in going to the basket and that's why Duncan got five blocked shots. Do you agree that you guys need to be more aggressive going to the basket?
SASHA PAVLOVIC: Yeah, we know they have a good shot blocker down there, but we've still got to be aggressive and try to take it all the way to the basket and try to get to his body, try to create fouls. Even if we miss, we're aggressive. It's going to be easier for LeBron to score if we just try to be aggressive.

Q. In your mind could you describe the experience of your first game in The Finals? Watching the pregame with all the photographers and so forth out on the floor, what was it like for you to look back at last night?
SASHA PAVLOVIC: I was pretty excited because I think this is the dream of every NBA player to be in the NBA Finals. But we're not going to stop here. We're going to try to take it all the way, try to win the games.

Q. When you hear what a lot of folks who may not closely follow the NBA say about European players, all they do is shoot from outside, they don't post, they don't play defense, they don't go hard, when you hear that, knowing that you don't play that way, that you do play defense, you do take the ball to the rim, how does that make you feel?
SASHA PAVLOVIC: Well, I don't really try to think about that because it's only going to distract my game, and I'm going to play worse if I think about that. But I think European players improve in this league and you see more and more of them in this league, and that's good enough to tell them that we are not soft and we are not a bad crop. I think we are pretty good to play in this league, and that's all.

Q. Along those lines, with Manu Ginobili playing for the Spurs, just your thoughts on his game and is he someone that you strived to be like?
SASHA PAVLOVIC: He's a great player. I don't try to be like nobody. I think I'm Sasha and I'm going to play my game and I'm going to try to prove to people I can play in this league. But Manu is a great player, and he used to be a great player in Europe. He won championships there, he won them here. He's just a great player. I think he showed that -- he asked me before, and he shows that European players are not soft.

Q. That sense of pride, with other European players in the league, do you talk and share stories like that and share a sense of pride that you and he and others are in the NBA Finals?
SASHA PAVLOVIC: I think it's big. There's like six international players in this NBA Finals. That's pretty big. We don't really try to think about what people say, we just try to come out and play basketball.

Q. Tell us who some of the more famous athletes from Montenegro are?
SASHA PAVLOVIC: From Montenegro, it's probably me and a couple more guys. But I don't know, it's Serbia & Montenegro, now they've split, so Montenegro doesn't have that much players in the NBA.

Q. Are you the only one?
SASHA PAVLOVIC: I'm the only one.

Q. First one ever?
SASHA PAVLOVIC: Yeah.

Q. How much better are the Spurs defensively than the Pistons, and how often does Coach Brown reference the Spurs when he's talking to you guys about defense?
SASHA PAVLOVIC: I don't know how much they're better, but they're different than Detroit. It was pretty tough for us. I think they beat us last night because they had more experience, and we was kind of too excited for the first game and they stopped LeBron last night. But we just have to adjust to that. We watched the tape, we know what we've got to do for the next game. We're going to try to get out and win the game.

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