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NBA FINALS: HEAT v SPURSJune 10, 2014Gregg PopovichMIAMI, FLORIDA: Game Three Q.  As many times as you've played this team now the last couple years, are you still having to work as hard on the preparation or do you kind of have a handle on what it is you're doing and just have to do what you guys do better? COACH GREGG POPOVICH: It's not a whole lot different. I mean, as I say quite often, it's basketball. But executing what you want to do defensively or offensively is still the key, and the team that does that the most is going to end up on top. It was a close game the other night. I thought our execution defensively was awful. They took advantage of it. Q. What is the most important element of a good defensive possession for your team? Assuming you've gotten back in transition and you've stopped the break in a half‑court situation, what is the most important element of a good defensive possession? COACH GREGG POPOVICH: Well, the goal is to hope that you could guard well enough, stay in front of people, and not give up the rim, not give up the three, and make a contested shot from the two‑point area. That's what you want to do. You want to contest two‑point shots. You don't want to give up uncontested threes, uncontested twos or the rim. That's not going to happen every time. The score would be 11‑8 if that was the deal. But that is the goal. Q. I'm doing a story for NPR about 35‑plus players and how teams like the Heat and Spurs have used players 35 years of age. Can you just talk about the 35‑plus culture in the NBA, and so many guys on each of these teams have been able to be so successful for so long into their careers? COACH GREGG POPOVICH: Well, I haven't done research to answer your question, but the guys that are playing well, the Tim Duncans, Ray Allens and so forth, just look at them as individuals and how they take care of themselves off‑season, what they put in their bodies and their mental toughness and their professional attitudes, all of those qualities are the same in all those kind of guys. Q. Do you think that's changed over the years how they've prepped the latter parts of their careers as opposed to 20, 25 years ago? COACH GREGG POPOVICH: I think techniques for recovery and that sort of thing are much better now than they used to be, and players have taken advantage of that. Q. I just noticed that Game 2 there was a lot of switching going on defensively. Is that part of the game plan or is that something that's really the flow of what's going on out there? COACH GREGG POPOVICH: Both teams are doing that to a great extent. Q. Was that part of the game plan? COACH GREGG POPOVICH: Sure, yes. Q. Switch everything? COACH GREGG POPOVICH: No, not everything, not everything, but switching is part of the game plan. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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