Quotes: Spurs vs. Kings : 11/02/2007

On staying focused while holding a big lead - “It’s always a task with a game like that where the two best players on your opponent’s team aren’t there. It’s good to see that the guys kept their focus and played well. The starters really supported the guys off of the bench and did a fine job.”

On Fabricio Oberto - “Fab brings the same thing every night whether it’s playoffs, regular season or preseason. He’s just a really fine teammate. He rebounds, he’s in the right place, he really understands how to play with Tim on the court, he plays good D and he is just really solid every night.”

On feeling comfortable with the bench contribution - “Actually I feel very uncomfortable because I have no clue on how to sub them right now. It usually takes me a while to figure out what the rotation is going to be as far as minutes are concerned, who’s coming in for who in certain situations, I don’t really have a good handle on that yet.”

On Ime’s performance - “It didn’t surprise me. We signed him because he is a pro and he is really a dedicated player just like the rest of the guys on the team. He understands the system, and obviously learned it pretty quick, so I wasn’t surprised but it is good for him to get out on the court.”

On not calling a timeout when the lead was cut to 13 points - “I wanted them to work through it and have Darius Washington show a little leadership on the court, let them figure out what’s going on and let them focus and play through the adversity because that is going to make them better players down the stretch. It is especially good for guys off of the bench if they ever have to come in and play later and bigger minutes because starters are injured or something like that, so it’s a good opportunity to see what they are made of and see how they can focus.”

On Tim Duncan’s pass - “Tim gave me a look that we use sometimes in practice so I just obeyed orders and the offensive balance wasn’t good which left me wide-open.”

On the Spurs playing as a team - “I think it’s always very important to find the open teammate. Sometimes during the game you feel open and ready to take the shot but with one extra pass someone else could be wide-open. We like to keep the entire team involved throughout the course of the game. Touching the ball creates an assist and that keeps the team happy.”

On holding the Kings under twenty percent in the first half - “I did notice that we held the kings under twenty percent in the first quarter and that’s not something that is easy to do. Two reasons we were able to hold the Kings is one we had a good defensive game and they struggled two, honestly they just really had a tough night.”

On the overall game - We got the shots we wanted but we just couldn’t convert. I thought we missed a great opportunity because at one point the Spurs missed shot after shot and it was right there for us. We have to learn to play tough and fight every day. Someone has to step up and make their presence felt on the court. You just can’t run down the court and be invisible. When you can’t put the ball in the hole, it affects your game on both ends. When you miss a lay-up and can’t even get a foul because you are losing the ball when you penetrate, it affects you emotionally – it’s frustrating. There is nothing we can do other than just keep fighting hard.

On what was said at halftime - We had a serious conversation in the locker room – not with what technically we need to fix. I told them that you just have to keep fighting.

On the first half - Who wouldn’t be frustrated? Down 20 points or so at the end of the first half wasn’t good but I think we won the second half. We just weren’t scoring very well. Obviously we want to get better as a team but also we can take a lot and build from this second half.