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NBA FINALS: SPURS v HEATJune 7, 2013Gregg PopovichMIAMI, FLORIDA: Practice Day Q. Hey, Coach. You guys have won seven in a row now against some pretty darn good competition. Your longest winning streak since early February. Do you feel your team is sort of hitting its stride or maybe its best stride this season? And is there anything particular in these seven games that your team maybe is doing better now than maybe it had done in previous weeks or months? COACH GREGG POPOVICH: Well, one hopes that by playoff time you're playing your best basketball. One would think that both Miami and San Antonio are doing that at this point. So since it is a game of mistakes, we always think there are things we can do better. Whether you win a game or lose a game, it doesn't matter. Both teams are going to try to improve certain areas in both ends of the court. And that's really what the emphasis is, look at film and try to decide without being too clever what areas you want to improve on. Q. Gregg, in your opinion, what does Tony Parker do best? COACH GREGG POPOVICH: I guess more than anything else he initiates a lot of offense both for himself and for teammates. That's his primary job, and that's probably what he does best. Q. Do you believe this team has transitioned from being Tim's team to being Tony's team in terms of leadership and the way this is structured? COACH GREGG POPOVICH: Well, we've never labeled it as someone's team. It's our team. It's not my team or Tim's team or Manu's team or Tony's team. It's our team. But the offense has certainly morphed into more of a perimeter offense than a post offense like it was when Timmy was younger. We still use Timmy on the post a good deal. But the ball is probably in Tony and Manu's hands more than it is in Timmy's hands. That's for sure. Q. Coach, Chris Bosh has been struggling with his offense for a while now. You guys had him pretty much contained yesterday as well. How do you keep him bottled up and not get loose on those shots? COACH GREGG POPOVICH: I think one has to be careful to not use too big a brush to paint somebody's situation. We didn't shoot well, and they didn't shoot well. Part of that is because at times good contesting and good defense, and other times people just miss good shots. They missed some wide‑open shots. We missed some wide‑open shots. So it's always a little bit of both. I don't think we contained Chris Bosh. He had some open shots he didn't make. Kawhi Leonard had some open shots he didn't make. So the labels don't really work for me. It's a matter of both. Sometimes shots are just missed and sometimes they are contested and the defense gets credit. Q. Coach, when you looked at the fourth quarter last night, how much of it was your team stepping up and then how much played into it what LeBron and Dwyane said about fatigue, maybe? COACH GREGG POPOVICH: I don't know how to answer that. Nobody has an answer to how tired was somebody or how well did somebody execute. We had some dry possessions down the stretch and we had some really good ones. They had some dry ones and some really good ones. In the end in fourth quarters it comes down to making shots, I guess. Danny Green hit a big three that really helped us get a little bit of a lead. A little bit of a comfort zone, if you will. To judge how tired someone was, if they were tired, we were no less tired, I'm sure. There's a lot of good athletes busting their butts for 48 minutes. Down the stretch we were fortunate. Tony hit a heck of a shot. So it's not like anybody kicked anybody's butt. It was anybody's ballgame, and we happened to be fortunate enough to get it. Q. Coach, can you talk about the timeout in which Tony Parker talked to the players. What did he tell you first? And why did you let him coach the players? COACH GREGG POPOVICH: Well, we do that. That's not a rarity. While the coaches are out talking on the court, we do that so the players can communicate and talk with each other, because most of the time they know more what's going on than we do. There will be times when Timmy will sit in that chair or Manu will sit there or Tony will sit there, and they'll talk to the team if they have something they want to get across. That's just how we do things. Tony had most of that timeout to get across to his teammates what he wanted. That's just what we do, I guess. Q. Is your defensive plan against LeBron basically the same as it was last time? COACH GREGG POPOVICH: What do you mean last time? You mean in '07? Q. Yes. I'm sorry. COACH GREGG POPOVICH: No. In some parts yes, some parts no. It's basketball. There's nothing tricky really about basketball. There are only so many things you can do. So we try to do a little bit of everything. Sometimes it means getting up into him. Sometimes it means backing off. Sometimes it means fronting him. Sometimes it means playing behind. It's just important to show a little bit of variety so somebody doesn't get used to one thing. But it's not got anything to do with '07. LeBron is a different player now. Q. A lot of times when they lose in these playoffs, people say he needs to do more, score more, wasn't aggressive enough. Have you ever asked a player to be more selfish or anything like that or does that just get everything out of the way? COACH GREGG POPOVICH: I've talked to players before about being more aggressive, if that's what your question was. Opportunities might be there that they didn't take advantage of. That happens with Timmy now and then. He's so unselfish, if he shoots three jumpers in a row he feels like he shouldn't shoot more sometimes, because he wants the ball to move and he wants to involve everybody. I think unselfish players think like that. Once in a while I've got to tell him, no, I don't care if you get 20 of those shots, you have to take them. I think sometimes a coach talks to a player about being more aggressive. Q. Can you give me a few adjectives that you assigned to David Robinson. And I'm just wondering if you would at all hesitate to invest your money with him in his current role on Wall Street with his investment fund? COACH GREGG POPOVICH: I have no clue what your question is or what it means, so I'll just pass on it. Q. Pop, in your playoff experience, does one game carry over to the next at all or is momentum just something that's fun to talk about and write about, and doesn't really mean a whole lot? COACH GREGG POPOVICH: I think each game is an entity until itself. It unfolds differently, and I actually spend zero time wondering about how the next game is going to go, because I really have no idea whatsoever. Just like last night we came out and I think we went ahead 9‑2 or something like that. If we had come out and gone down 9‑2, it would have all been the same to me. I had no idea which one to expect. And neither one really means anything to start the game. It unfolds as it goes. I don't take much from game to game. It's about what you do in trying to execute that and trying to pick up things on the other team's weaknesses or strengths as you go. But from game to game, it's a new deal. Q. Gregg, I know it's a make or miss situation down the stretch. What makes you guys so good at executing in the fourth quarter down the stretch? And is there a way or any way that you place a greater importance on fourth‑quarter execution? COACH GREGG POPOVICH: Well, everyone knows fourth quarters are very important, and that execution, at both ends of the court, whether it's defensive rotations or what you're running on offense, are important. But I don't think we're as good as you say. We looked at the film today, and I thought we had just as many dry possessions as we had good ones. So I think oftentimes a team that wins a game gets too much credit for being really well‑executing and for having the energy and all that sort of thing. If it's the losing team, you catch hell because you didn't execute this or that, or you ran out of gas or something. And I think both notions are probably misplaced. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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