Postgame Quotes: 05/29/03

On the need for experience - “Stephen kept us from falling down the hill totally. He showed good choices. He made some threes, penetrated and pulled up, did a good job in that sense. He was very important in keeping us rolling. I thought, down the stretch, Tim Duncan was great; playing Joe Montana down on the block, doing it himself at times, other times finding the open guys, just using what was available. Everybody did a pretty good job. To end up with a fourth quarter like that, everybody has to play well.”

On whether or not he thought he was going to play – “To be honest I really didn’t. I haven’t played much in probably three months. We’ve been rolling along and Tony (Parker) has been playing great and Speedy has been backing him up well. I didn’t expect to play until I head that Tony was sick. Early in the 3rd quarter is was apparent that he couldn’t give us much tonight and at that point I figured that I might get in.”

On feeding off of Stephen Jackson’s play – "I was just feeding off the momentum. We should know that we’re not out of a game when we’re down 15 just like Dallas was never out of the games earlier in this series. It is a very difficult thing to hold leads in the NBA and when the momentum swings, it can swing wildly."

On his first shot – "The first shot’s pretty big and I hit one from the corner either late in the third or early in the fourth. That was the first shot I’ve made in the playoffs. Out of 15 games, or however many we’ve played, I haven’t made a single shot. But I’ve been shooting a lot of them in practice trying to stay prepared and fortunately I got a few to go down.

"The first one was probably the toughest one. But it’s a little bit easier to come in when you are down 14 or 15 and you just let it go and just play. So I just came in and figured ‘Let it fly’ and see what happens."

On if he sensed that he could be a difference maker – “No. I haven’t been a difference maker in a long time! I wasn’t thinking about that. I was just paying attention to what was going on in the game. We we’re in a zone offense and we were really struggling. We were frantic. I was just concentrating on making sure we were getting onto a little bit of a flow and finding a rhythm to our game and we did thanks to Stephen Jackson, thanks to our defense, and thanks to some smarter play in the 4th quarter."

On lack of offensive opportunities – “It wasn’t even about getting shots. The shots that I did get it seemed like everything was going short for me. I wasn’t really worried about getting the shots. I was more worried about making the shots than getting the shots.”

On returning to the finals – "It’s great. It seems like it’s been forever since we’ve been here. It’s just a great feeling to be back."

On the Nets – "Great team. They’ve been playing incredible. 10 wins in a row. I know their confidence is incredibly high. I think we spilt with them during the season. They have some great leaders in Jason Kidd, one of the best point guards in the game if not the best, and Kenyon Martin. These guys are confident. These guys are very good and it’s not going to be an easy one."

On if he felt like he still was in a rhythm going into the second half – “That’s just me; I am aggressive. If they are going to take away Tim, then someone else is going to have to score, so I just stepped up and took the shots with confidence and I was able to knock them down tonight.”

On the difference in games five and six - "I think I approached it the same way. I just think as a team we buckled down and took better care of the ball in the fourth quarter and did not stop playing once we got the lead. In game five, we got satisfied with the lead and stopped playing and though the Dallas Mavericks were going to bow down and give us the game. They are a great team. They had on of the best records in the league too, so we shouldn’t have done that because they are a great team and they are not going to give up. They are going to fight right to the end, and they were able to get the win in game five."

We were running the same things we were running all game with the same people and they basically shut us down. We went cold at the wrong time. Give them all the credit. Their defense was amazing, especially the last eight minutes. I thought Jackson was the guy that broke it open and lit us up with some outside shots. I thought it was a great move by Popovich to play Kerr. He broke our zone open. We couldn’t guard them man-to-man or zone when they are making shots like that."

On being proud of the team - "I’ve never been more proud of, it’s not the perfect team. We have holes in our team, but those guys play and they found ways to win. They found a way to blend together and to become one. That is what you want your teams to do. Everyone was worried about out locker rooms with all the trades, but our locker room was so tight and wonderful to coach."

On what was right in the first quarter - "We did the same thing when they broke it open. It was a matter of them finding the holes and shot making. It was hard to score against them the whole time. We kept finding ways to make shots and plays. The combination of them turning their gear up to a different level, we couldn’t go to a different level. We were playing at as high a level as we could get it all game. When they moved it up and we couldn’t go any higher, I think that really was the end of it."

On being tired in the fourth - “I don't think it was fatigue. I thought we had good energy going into the fourth. Once they (Spurs) got that momentum, that momentum sort of carried them over the top and they just kicked our butt from there. I don't think we got tired, we sort of put our heads down when they started making their run and we didn't have any fight.”