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NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: SPURS v LAKERSMay 27, 2008Gregg PopovichSAN ANTONIO, TEXAS: Game Four Q. Insofar as you would be willing to discuss your own strategy, Kobe was saying that you guys purposely don't foul, him, which would be an unusual approach. But is that what you do? COACH POPOVICH: Well, I guess he is sort of correct. I mean, we don't want to foul him. We don't want to foul anybody. But other than that, I don't know what to say. I mean, Kobe at the free-throw line 10 or 15 times is a devastating thing. So we're hoping we can guard him and foul him as little as possible. Q. Joey Crawford is working this game tonight. You had him in the playoffs before. What affect does it have on you guys? How do you feel with him at this point having him work games? COACH POPOVICH: Absolutely no effect whatsoever. It doesn't matter who the officials are for a game. They are going to do their best job to officiate, just like the Lakers and the Spurs are going to do their best job to play a game. Whatever the pool is, you could pick three guys out of the hat. It doesn't matter. That's irrelevant to the outcome of the game. Q. Last game Gasol and Odom both struggled offensively. What did you guys do to take them out of their comfort zones? COACH POPOVICH: I don't know that we did anything different. I think when people don't have great games, there's always a feeling that a team did a certain thing to stop somebody or do this or do that. You know, Manu didn't have great games in L.A. and he had a great game in Game 3. We didn't do anything special for him. I don't think they guarded him any differently. Sometimes players just have good games and bad games. And that's what the playoffs are all about to a large degree, is good players playing well. Q. When you look at your roster, you have a lot of guys that weren't top picks in the draft. You look at Jason Maxiell last night, playing great. He wasn't a top pick. Is it possible you draft a guy lower, maybe he has a chip on his shoulder? It is not always getting the right person, it is getting the right player, when you draft lower rather than high in the draft. COACH POPOVICH: Okay. I'm trying to figure out your question. I'm sorry. Q. I am just trying to get your mind-set on the whole thing. COACH POPOVICH: On the draft? Q. Just on picking lower. COACH POPOVICH: Well, I haven't thought about the draft very much lately to be honest with you. We've had some success picking lower. Frankly, sometimes it's, you know, it is a credit to good scouting and sometimes it's luck. There are examples all over the place of high picks that didn't make it or low picks that did make it. I think that's a real subjective thing. There is no formula for that at all. Q. Peter mentioned the other day in the paper that you guys have this handshake agreement through 2012, that he thought you might have signed it. COACH POPOVICH: You do? That's great to know that. Security is always a good thing. Q. Have you actually signed your contract extension? COACH POPOVICH: Yes, I have. End of FastScripts |
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