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NBA FINALS: HEAT v SPURSJune 6, 2014Tony ParkerSAN ANTONIO, TEXAS: Practice Day Q.  Tony, first, how are you feeling? With the ankle, and you wanted to make sure it held up. How are you feeling after last night's game? TONY PARKER: I woke up today, I feel great. I'm very happy with the progress. Felt better and better during the game. So I'm very confident, you know, for Game 2 that my ankle will hold up. Q. Seemed like in the second half you got more comfortable physically, was that the case? TONY PARKER: Definitely. Q. What was the difference? TONY PARKER: A little bit worried in the first quarter. Didn't know how my ankle would react. Second half felt a lot better. Felt like it was getting stronger. As I got warmed up, I felt confident playing my game and being aggressive. Q. What was the difference between the second half last night and the second half in Oklahoma City, when you were really trying to work it out? TONY PARKER: I wanted to play that second half, against OKC, but Pop made the call, and we were worried about maybe Game 7. I always trust Pop's judgment, but it's night and day compared to how it feels right now and how I felt in OKC. Those five days definitely helped me. Q. You can relate to how LeBron must have felt sitting out. You sat out the second half of that critical game, how does the competitor in you ‑‑ TONY PARKER: It's hard, and I'm sure LeBron is thinking the same thing. It's hard when you see your team out there and you know you can help. I try to do the best job I can treatment‑wise and get my rest. And it's six more games technically, so I just have to make sure I stay healthy. And like I said before, we started the series, I trust my body to hold up. Q. Tony, this could be your last NBA Finals with Timmy or Manu. How much do you think about that? TONY PARKER: I think it's very important for us to not skip steps, you know, to take it one game at a time. Obviously I treat it like it's my last one, you know, because you never know when you're going to come back. You have to take nothing for granted and just enjoy the moment. It's very important to stay game to game and not think too much about, oh, it's my last one, stuff like that, you know, we just have to win games. Did a good job winning the first game and now we have to focus on Game 2. Q. Tony, Tim Duncan had 10 attempts in the paint and ended up making nine of them. Is there something about the way they're defending that allows him to get looks so close to the basket. TONY PARKER: They're doing the trap hard hedge, whatever you want to call it, on the pick‑and‑rolls and we were trying to find Timmy. And we were successful, but we had a lot of turnovers, too. We were trying to find Timmy inside because he was effective down there, but it created a lot of turnovers, too, because Miami has a great defense. They have great rotation. So we have to be smart with our decisions. Find a happy middle. Q. There is lots of talk over the past eight years about a big three. Do you view yourself along with Tim and Manu as a big three? What does it mean to you to have played your career with those guys? TONY PARKER: I feel very blessed to play my whole career with Manu and Timmy. Made my job easier as a point guard. It's very rare in professional sports that you can play with the same teammates for over 13 years and I definitely don't take it for granted. I appreciate every moment, especially right now because you never know when it's going to be the end. I love playing with those guys and I hope we can do it one more time. Q. Tony, you mentioned last night that you played in the European Championships. It was hot, there was no air conditioning. Your team seemed to come through heat extremely well. The fact that LeBron has had these issues historically and the cramping up, do you have any thoughts about how you want to see the air conditioning in the arena? TONY PARKER: I want the AC to come back, I want to play the real Miami Heat, the two‑time champs, with LeBron back. I hope it's not bad. And I hope he's going to be 100% on Sunday. Because as a competitor you want to play against the best and that's how I feel. Q. What was it like the first time you saw Boris play or played with him? Were you amazed that he could make passes that you can make as a point guard? TONY PARKER: Boris when I first saw him play, I was very impressed with the whole package, you know, has a lot of skills and can do a lot of stuff on the basketball court and I was excited to play with a great player on the national team. It's been an incredible journey to play with your best friend on a championship team, and I hope we can do it and try to win a championship with him, it would be his first one. We dreamt about the NBA when we was in France, so we keep living our dream. Q. You guys had about 30 assists last night but 23 turnovers. Did it balance out or do you feel fortunate that you were able to win even with those turnovers? TONY PARKER: I still feel lucky because when we have 20‑plus turnovers, we lose those games. We definitely have to take care of the ball, that's one of the keys. Don't get me wrong, we have to give credit to Miami's defense and I think we have to play a little bit better. And if we want to win Game 2, we have to take care of the ball. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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