|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
NBA FINALS: HEAT v SPURSJune 10, 2014Manu GinobiliMIAMI, FLORIDA: Game Three San Antonio Spurs - 111 Q.  Manu, what did you guys say to Kawhi to get him motivated to come out and have the type of performance that he had tonight? MANU GINOBILI: I didn't say a word. I'm pretty sure Pop did push him a little bit. But, hey, the guy is 22, 23, he played a couple okay games. He didn't even play bad. We trust him. We knew he was going to step up, I don't know if this game but the next one. He's a great player. He was going to be there because he has done it before. So I know Pop talked to him, maybe T.D. a little bit. But I don't think that everybody goes and talk to him and tell him how important he is for the team. He knows. He understands what we do and how important he is for us. He just played a great game. Q. How impressive was that first half for you guys, I mean, putting up the amount of points? You've done it throughout the playoffs having big halves like this, but against this team was that huge? MANU GINOBILI: It was huge, especially the first quarter was incredible. At a point I think we were 19‑for‑20. I don't know what we shot at the end of the quarter, but it was fun to watch, and it was one of those games that it happens once in a while. We may play 20, 30 games and that's not going to happen again. So it was our turn. We were very inspired early in the game. We took a great lead. We sort of maintained it. At a point in the third quarter it got rough because they cut the deficit to seven. You know, the crowd pushing them and they were all excited. It got complicated, but we kept playing. We kept moving the ball. I started to make a couple shots again, and we got it back to 15, and we really needed it. Q. You touched on it in the last answer, but when you guys are shooting 19‑for‑21, one, do you shoot that well in warm‑ups even? And two, what is the conversation like among you guys when everyone's making everything? When you guys went 11 and a half minutes without missing a shot. That obviously can't be something you imagined was possible. MANU GINOBILI: No, for sure. It's not something you can plan. There was no magic plays, we just moved the ball and every shot went in. The good thing is that at the same time that was happening on offense, we were pretty good defensively too. So that helped us get that 20‑point lead or 16 in one quarter. So it was a great team effort, so we took advantage of that percentage. It was fun to play like that. Q. The swings in this series, even in games, even in quarters have been pretty dramatic. Did you guys expect that coming in? And how do you sort of try to maintain a rhythm through all of those ups and downs? MANU GINOBILI: Yeah, it's a game of runs. It always happens. You're not going to find many games in which the difference is always plus four, minus four. It happens once in a while. Probably you're not going to see a final that often that after 15 minutes we're up 20. That's pretty unrealistic. But they really have the potential to make runs. I said multiple times, they're very energetic defensively. They've got players that can score in bunches. They've got shooters spread out, so it can happen that they make a run, and we expected it. I'm very proud that we kept playing, and we built up the lead again after they cut it to seven. So it was great to see that in a tough atmosphere with a great opponent that is a two‑time champion, so it was a great effort. Q. As you know better than anybody, the way you guys play offensively your offense might come and go individually. With Kawhi, we don't always see what we saw in the first quarter. You've been around the league a long time. What kind of ceiling does it have when it comes to the offense? The defense, but offensively what do you see? MANU GINOBILI: No, he has talent. He has many ways of scoring. His handles are good. We don't give him the ball to play a pick‑and‑roll, but he can do it. The thing is that most of the time it's either Tony or me running those pick‑and‑rolls, but he has the whole package. He has a great three‑point shot. Everybody saw it. His percentages during the season were great. He can post‑up, mid‑range game. So he's young, and he's on a team where it's not we go at him every time. So he does have a great potential, but it's going to depend on him, as always, of not being too satisfied with what he's doing now, working at it and develop. He's in a great spot with a great coach, hopefully with a good team to develop him. But his potential is really hard to define or to be sure about. Q. Can you talk about what you guys did this game to disrupt them from a defensive standpoint? You turned them over ten times in each half, scored 23 points off their 20 turnovers. MANU GINOBILI: Sometimes it happens. It happened to us in Game 1. We turned the ball over 22 times. Sometimes you are a little sloppy, and it sometimes happens. You make a pass and it bounces off your feet and you turn it over.  I think we were more aggressive. Our hands were much better. The help was a little earlier rather than late, so we forced them to turn the ball over a little bit more. But I'm pretty sure we didn't force them to turn the ball over 20 times. Probably the same way that they didn't force us in Game 1 to turn the ball over 23 times. So it's one of those games that it happens. They played an average game at most, and we were pretty good, so that's why the difference. Q. Do you think Kawhi's offensive explosion will overshadow what he did to LeBron tonight defensively? MANU GINOBILI: Hopefully not. He was sharp. He was very attentive. The team helped him more, too. But, no, he had a great game on both ends of the floor. It's really hard to make LeBron score under 25, and scoring 30 in a Final is really hard to do. So an unbelievable game by Kawhi, and one of the main reasons with the ball movement we had, why we won this game like this. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|