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NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: THUNDER v SPURSMay 27, 2014Gregg PopovichOKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA: Game Four Q.  Last game you got out‑rebounded by a significant margin. Is that more about effort, and what do you expect to see in Game 4? GREGG POPOVICH: Well, you know, I don't know. You call it what you want. It is what it is. They beat us badly on the board, and if that happens again, we're going to have a hard time. I thought in general, our defense lacked determination, didn't do early work, weren't very physical. Pretty much followed them around and let them do what they wanted to do, and I think that was part of the free throw disparity in the third quarter when it was 22‑zip. We were behind all the time. They got offensive boards and we fouled them, that sort of thing. I thought it just wasn't a good enough display defensively for sure, and that includes the board. Q. No shoot‑around today. What did you do all day today in Oklahoma City? GREGG POPOVICH: I read Wine Spectator, read a little bit of a book, slept, worked out, had breakfast. Anything else you want to know personally that I might have done? Q. Just curious defensively, Serge is so good at that 18‑foot jumper, on that pick‑and‑pop, how much decision making is that on the defense as to how to guard that, or do you just have to decide to bring a man out to him or stay back? I guess the pressure it puts on a defense to defend that. GREGG POPOVICH: Well, he's a good player and that's why people score points. The games aren't 12‑8. That's why they're in the 80s, 90s and 100s because you can't stop everything. He's a good shooter and he's going to make some shots. Q. You've talked about Sam a couple different times during the Playoffs. I'm curious when he came to you guys, he was just a young guy like a lot of your sort of entry level guys are. Did you get a sense, anything to sort of indicate he was going to have this kind of career path? GREGG POPOVICH: Well, the first thing about Sam is he's smart as a whip, and you can figure that out real quickly just sitting down and having a conversation with him. You know, he's one of those guys that it translates. There's a lot of smart people in the world, but they can't do anything with it. His translates. He's got a feel for the game. He understood all the rules as far as the management side was concerned. He was a hard worker, and he was pretty relentless. He's always there at the office. He'd come to coaching stuff and he'd sit in our meetings and take it all in and offer good suggestions.  Pretty early on, you knew that he was a really capable young man. Q. What did you see in him to give him a shot? GREGG POPOVICH: We've blown his head up enough, haven't we? Geez‑oh‑whiz, Sammy, Sammy, Sammy. I'm getting tired of Sammy. Q. What did you see in him to give him the opportunity? I assume there's a thousand guys that would like to come and work for you. GREGG POPOVICH: I just said that. Do you want me to make up some different stuff? Q. How did he even get in the door, I guess. GREGG POPOVICH: Oh, okay. Division III. Seriously. I mean, you don't have to come from a big‑time program to do well. That goes for players, coaches, managers, all that sort of thing. But RC does a great job in creating a pool of people that we contact that tell us who they think is pretty good. We do a lot of interviewing and a lot of talking to people in that respect, bringing guys in for a position, whether it's the head film guy or the No.2 or the No.3 in the film room or workout guys or development guys and just keep working at it and invite a lot of those guys in the summer. I'm sure Sammy is doing the same thing now, just to develop a pool of people. They'll stand out on their own over time and in different situations. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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