SPURS , Lakers

Postgame Quotes: Spurs vs. Lakers 5/29/08


Manu Ginobili
Tony Parker
Brent Barry
Bruce Bowen

Vladimir Radmanovic
Lamar Odom
Jordan Farmar
Luke Walton

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Manu Ginobili

"It's disappointing, that’s for sure because every time you lose and you believe you have a shot to win the championship its disappointing, of course. We don't believe there is a 4-1 difference between us. We let the first one get away, had the shot to win the 4th, today we had another great opportunity."

"They are a great team, but I don’t have the feeling that they are way better, either than us, New Orleans, Utah. I mean they made it to the finals because they deserve it but I don’t have that feeling that they were so much superior. But we have to give them credit, they played great, especially down the stretch when we fell a couple times and so they are the ones that made it."

"I don’t really like to look back on it. I'm very happy with being part of this team and this organization. For me and my family and my career, being with Championship teams, I didn't want to give that up quite so soon. And again, the results were not what I wrote down in the script, and we have to swallow that and congratulate the Lakers."

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Tony Parker

"Tough losses— game 1, game 4, and this one. All of those games where we were up and playing pretty good and it just didn't work out our way. You just have to give credit to the Lakers; they played better than us for a long period of time."

"They just played better than us for a long time. Every time we have a good start and have a big lead and cant maintain it."

"Obviously everybody is disappointed, everybody thought we were in a good place to win it and have another opportunity to play in San Antonio and it just didn’t happen and that's basketball. Now we just focus for next year."

"They play pretty good defense like I said, you have to give them credit. They played pretty good defense and overall they just played better than us."

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Brent Barry

"It's very reminiscent of the Phoenix series. Phoenix thought they had Game 1, and we were able to steal it away. I don’t know how much thunder it took out of them, but we were in the same boat this series where we were up, we were in control of the game, and they came back and took the game from us…It takes the wind out of our sails…"

"I don't really like to look back on it. I'm very happy with being part of this team and this organization. For me and my family and my career, being with Championship teams, I didn’t want to give that up quite so soon. And again, the results were not what I wrote down in the script, and we have to swallow that and congratulate the Lakers."

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Bruce Bowen

"I think it's a matter of being MVP. Guys like that, when they have other guys around them, it helps them out a great deal. He has a great group around him, Pau and Lamar – they allow him to go one-on-one and if someone helps off the bigs or anything, it gives him an easy opportunity to dump it to Pau or Lamar… it helps out a great deal, not to take anything away from what he does on his own one-one one, but now you add other aspects into the mix to create something difficult."

"There is a great amount of respect for one another. I said he deserves all of the things he’s received this year. For them to go through some of the ups and downs that they've gone through, he gets the MVP only through his work and dedication to the game. It wasn't given to him, and he’s been one of the top players in this league for the past 5 years."

"I hope they do a good job. I think their coaching staff will do whatever they need to do to try and get the job done. Hopefully they'll keep it in the West."

"The arrival of Pau helps out a great deal because last year they weren't in this position, they had a missing piece, and they seemed to have found that missing piece."

"You need to understand that teams are going to make a run at home and we made runs and they made runs and they seemed to keep their run going more than anything else. Being at home is one of the luxuries you have, having a home crowd behind you, you can never get too down. If you get down however many points you get down, you’re still in the game, and you’re able to get it done."

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Vladimir Radmanovic

"Well I'm excited, but this doesn't mean anything. We're just western conference finalist winners, but now we have to finish this. We have four more games to go."

"It's a weird feeling. You know, they're an experienced great team, they know what they do and how to run their stuff, and we were down 18 points in that first quarter but somehow we found a way to get out of it and win this game."

"It felt like zero…that was it. Like I said, it was a great feeling, but we want to win a championship, we don't want to win this."

"It's the first time, and it's something I'm looking forward to next season too. Hopefully this is something I'm going to be doing for the next couple of years."

"We will enjoy it a little bit, get relaxed, think about it, and get some rest tomorrow and come back to work on Sunday."

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Lamar Odom

"In a way we expected it so our confidence was really high. We came out here, played our game, and won. We were down 18 and it got tough, but we found a way to win."

"Yes, the first time ever. I can remember when I was six years old, watching the games, and back then it was on I think CBS, before cable was big, watching Kareem and Magic, to have this opportunity is great."

"It's satisfying but, one more step."

"Really good, really good…Joy, it's not always the sad stuff that gets you."

"I mean, everyone was really excited, my heart's still pumping, that adrenaline is still running from the game. Maybe when I sit down and have something to eat I'll realize what just happened."

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Jordan Farmar

"First and foremost, it's just energy. The building was dead tonight and (the Spurs) were on a roll. They had all the momentum and that's our job… to come in and turn that around."

"We believed that from the start. The way we were playing before the trade, we were first place in the West already in a tough Western Conference. Andrew Bynum was playing some of the best basketball we ever seen. We were all playing well, our units were smooth and then we just made some upgrades. Unfortunately, Andrew went down and they made some big moves and we just kept going from there."

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Luke Walton

"I don't know (how we won) because they are really good. That's the funny thing about basketball. Those games… most of those games could have gone either way and we had the best closer in the game, Kobe and now with the new way we've been playing as a team and making extra passes makes all those other guys so much more dangerous and tough to guard down the strip."

"It was kind of crazy this year really when Drew (Bynum) was playing the way he was playing early on. We felt like we had a dominant big man and we felt like we had a real chance to compete for it. Then when he went down, it was kind of like a rollercoaster and we sunk a little bit, and we still had a very good team that could compete but now with the addition of Pau (Gasol), just put us right back up there at that elite level."

"Getting there that rookie year and losing was one of the worst feelings I've ever had in my life. It's a lot of fun to go but you don't want to experience that. So we have to make sure we enjoy ourselves tonight, but we stay focused and stay alert and get ready because we are going to play a very good team, no matter who it is coming up, in the East."

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