Iavaroni

MEMPHIS GRIZZLIES HEAD COACH MARC IAVARONI

On the win...
It was a roller coaster game. It was a great first half and a very consistent third quarter, and then we were on fumes in the fourth. Clearly, the minutes we played our guys started to show, and I think that had a lot to do with the turnovers in the fourth and the tightening of the nerves. I think that we need to learn how to play that way. It is because we played a lot of tight defense in the first three quarters. It is because we chased all the loose balls. It is because we rotated a lot on shooters. It is because we swarmed as well as we could on (Tim) Duncan. We were not in foul trouble. I thought this was a satisfying victory. They were missing a guy, and we were missing a guy. There were a lot of good plays at the end. Defensively, Mike Miller had the biggest play for us.

On winning in a tight situation...
It was an achieved lesson. The inbounds play, we have seen that play for a while. You don’t know what play they are running. We need to do a better job of that….We need to take care of the ball and know when it is not time to fast-break. We need to protect the ball. I know that Damon (Stoudamire) wasn’t very satisfied because he is a perfectionist. A lot of that was on our youth chemistry.

On Tim Duncan...
Darko (Milicic) I think feels very confident playing Tim Duncan. I think he understands how much you can push and then back off because Tim is going to play the entire game. He is not going to get a lot of fouls. That’s just the way it is. He has earned that respect.

On the last shot...
I think that Rudy (Gay) has always wanted to take it. I think that this is one of those cases where they get the ball at the end and we remember that play at the end of game one… (Manu) Ginobili took away the drive and got a charge. We needed to create air space, and obviously 2.4 is a little different situation. Results usually bring confidence.

Gay

MEMPHIS GRIZZLIES FORWARD RUDY GAY

On his game-winning shot...
The play was for Mike [Miller]. Obviously Mike is a great shooter and they went with Mike; I was the second option. If Mike got the ball he would have knocked the shot down, but I got the chance to do it today. At first I looked to see who was guarding me; Tim [Duncan] wasn’t going to get to me quick enough. So, I just put it up and thought I had a pretty good follow-through. I had enough time to finish my shot off and it went in.

On the game...
They’re a good team. We dominated them for most of the game. They came out and really threw us for that little stretch. But, we were able to win. We just moved the ball. We made them play defense because they were making us play defense. That’s the name of the game, especially when you’re playing the world champs.

On Darko Milicic...
I think Darko did a great job. He did all we asked of him. He blocked their shots and fronted them and really tried to limit their shots.

On being the go-to-guy at the end of games...
It’s not a question of if I want it. It’s a question of if I can make it or if I feel like I can make it. There are maybe three or four other people on this team that can make shots. We have a lot of options on this team of people who can finish.

Milicic

MEMPHIS GRIZZLIES CENTER DARKO MILICIC

On guarding Tim Duncan...
He’s a good player. I’m just trying to stop him. All those big-time players, I’m trying to get into the game and stop them. That’s what I’m doing for this team right now. Offensively I’m not doing much, so I’m trying to defend the big-time players and do the best job I can.

On the game...
[A game like this] really does help [my confidence]. I hope we keep playing like this against world champion teams. You never know, even if they had [Tony] Parker it would have been a great game. They still had a lot of players on the bench. If we keep playing like this we’ll be just fine. If not, we’re going to lose like we did before. Then there will be some other strange games.

On the win...
That was a big shot. We needed that too. This would have been a tough one to go into overtime. It’s a big win for us; it’s a big shot for us. Hopefully we’ll ride it out for a little bit.

...
This was very big. Every win is big for us right now. If we had something crazy happen there, that would have been tough on our team because we worked hard that game. We have to figure out ways to close out games better. But then again, they’re world champs; they’re a pretty good basketball team. We knew it was going to be a dogfight and they’d make a run.

Miller

MEMPHIS GRIZZLIES FORWARD MIKE MILLER

On Rudy Gay...
It really does look effortless [when he makes that final shot]. He’s been blessed with something. He’s talented, he’s long, he’s athletic. He can get a good look whenever he wants one. He did a good job of taking his time and getting the shot he wanted.

On the Grizzlies play...
You’ve got to want it. I think we’re getting to that level. One thing we’ve got to understand is that winning is so fun. Hopefully we’ll continue to push forward and start winning a few more games.

Popovich

SAN ANTONIO SPURS HEAD COACH GREGG POPOVICH

On the loss...
It ended up being a real good game. I’m sure the fans loved the heck out of that, but the bottom line is that NBA games are 48 minutes and they played well for more of the 48 minutes than we did.

On Rudy Gay’s final shot...
He made a desperation shot and it went in so you give him credit, Tim was right there to contest it and sometimes shots go in and you win games like that. Great shot by Rudy.

Ginobili

SAN ANTONIO SPURS FORWARD MANU GINOBILI

On the game...
It was the best comeback for sure. We can’t be satisfied with making that comeback because we really played bad. We let them take to many comfortable shots. We executed really bad defensively too many mistakes. The fourth quarter was really good but when you give a team so much confidence, it is really hard to come out. They made a great shot at the last second.

Duncan

SAN ANTONIO SPURS CENTER TIM DUNCAN

On the game...
We dug ourselves a hole and fought really hard to get back into it and just ran out of luck.

...
They just played well and we weren’t playing well. We were defending horribly. They were shooting the ball well on top on us making bad defensive plays and it was just a bad combination.

On Rudy Gay’s last play...
I think I just gave him a little too much space. I think he got a little too comfortable. I thought he would at least take one more dribble in and I could contest something toward the top of the key and I gave him a little more space. He pulled a three on a hand up and the rest is history.