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NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: THUNDER v SPURSMay 23, 2014Gregg PopovichOKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA: Practice Day Q.  I just saw the Thunder upgrade Serge Ibaka to day‑to‑day. Any thoughts about that? GREGG POPOVICH: Shock. So surprised. (Laughter.) Like I told you from the beginning, I know Sammy. You knew he'd be back. But that's good. Nobody would wish that on anybody to miss a playoff. We've had guys miss Playoffs before, and it's obviously a downer. If he gets back in, and I'm sure he will, as I've said from the beginning, I think it's great. Q. Does that impact your preparation? GREGG POPOVICH: No. You know, it gives them another hell of a player, but we are who we are. We've got to be who we are. Can't change what we do. Q. With or without Serge, what adjustments do you anticipate them making? GREGG POPOVICH: Don't know what that is until the game starts. You guys make a little bit too much of‑‑ and gals‑‑ of these adjustments that get made, so if a team wins, they made some hellacious adjustments, and if a team loses they've got to make an adjustment. It's a lot of psycho babble to a pretty large degree. Q. With Tim, Manu and Tony being the winningest trio in playoff history, why do you think the three of them have been able to develop such great chemistry over the years? Is it just they're great players or is it something‑‑ GREGG POPOVICH: They're good players, but they've been together. I mean, when you're together with the same people for a while, you start to‑‑ like we always say, married people finish each other's sentences. It's one of those deals. They have enjoyed each other's success. They're team oriented enough to, as I said, enjoy what the others do. It's not about each one of them, it's about the group and their team. Having that kind of character and attitude really helps the situation over time become a great one. Q. When you first saw Manu, Manu and Tony, did you know they were perfect fits for Tim? GREGG POPOVICH: No. You never know until things get put together. You hope. I can remember a time way back when, and you probably remember, I was going to put Tony at 2 for a while, let Jason Kidd teach him how to run the point, that kind of stuff. And then Manu came into the picture. We knew that they were competitive people. We knew they were good people, but how it's going to all fit, we could never have hoped it would fit this well. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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