Hornets 98, SPURS 96

Post-Game Quotes: Spurs vs. Hornets 1/24/04


Gregg Popovich
Malik Rose
Tony Parker
Tim Floyd

Darrell Armstrong
Steve Smith

Click on a player to read quotes

Spurs Head Coach Gregg Popovich

On the game - “New Orleans deserves a lot of credit. They’re playing banged up right now with two of their stars out. They played great for 48 minutes, so give them credit. We lost sight that it is a 48-minute game. They made shots, which helped, but we didn’t make stops down the stretch. They earned it.”

On Darrell Armstrong - “He was fantastic. We couldn’t stick with him. He’s the head of that snake for them right now.”

On Hedo Turkoglu - “I was told it is a left thigh contusion. I don’t know for sure how it is.”


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Malik Rose

On the game - “We’re still confident. This loss hurts but it will make us better in the long run. We’re not playing well right now. We have a lot of room to improve. We know we’re still a good team, right now we’re just not playing like it.”

On his performance - “I was just coming out to play hard and to try and make things happen. It doesn’t really mean that much now. This loss is pretty hard to swallow. Give New Orleans credit because they played hard.”


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Tony Parker

On the game - “(Darrell Armstrong) was on fire. It seems like a lot of point guards have been playing that way lately. It hurts to have been up 15 and not to win. We missed some shots at the end. Give them credit, they hit some big shots.”

On the road ahead - “We have a pretty tough schedule coming up. We have to stay strong mentally and must focus on getting better.”


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Hornets Head Coach Tim Floyd

On the game - “It wasn’t about the plays we drew up. It was players with a lot of fortitude and playing through a thing or two as well. For instance that last shot by Darrell (Armstrong), we did want to get it to him at the top of the screens, they were just kind of in good position, he just made a terrific play. It was just all about fight tonight. The guys just kept fighting and they kept getting more confidence along the way. I thought we played with a lot of poise down the stretch. We were shooting a good percentage from the field and getting to the line. We kept getting people in the post, P.J., Cat, and Stacey, they all caught it low and made plays. The problem with our zone in the past is that we allowed dribble penetration, but the guys really sat down on the dribble and did a nice job there. For the most part we rebounded well. I thought Malik Rose was very active and changed the game for the positive for the Spurs. I was happy for Smitty knocking down shots against his old team. Darrell was just unbelievable.”

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Darrell Armstrong

On the game-winning shot - “It wasn’t how we drew it up. I just saw Ginobili trying to fight over the pick. I got him on that earlier and he did it again. When I saw Tim (Duncan) coming I just knew I had to rise up and shoot it. I saw it go in. I saw Tractor jumping up. Once I let it go I couldn’t see it, but I knew it was on line. When I looked up again it went through the net. We’ll take it. That was a big win right there. That might be the best win we are going to have all year. We’re fighting and we’ll continue to fight. We just kept believing. . Guys were digging in. Congratulations to these guys.”

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Steve Smith

On the game - “The last shot I took, the play was for me to shoot a two. I was shooting a three, no matter what. We were down two and I figured just go for it and I hit it. We just kept hitting big shots. We had a great defensive play at the end to stop them. You never know; we stayed in it the whole game. Guys on this team have big hearts. Being shorthanded shows how good we can be. We’re missing about seventy points out of the lineup. You don’t really realize, but David West gave us a lot coming in as a rookie. He is a big part of this team too. We just play with a lot of heart.”

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