Quotes: Spurs vs. Raptors: November 9, 2009

Gregg Popovich	Manu Ginobili	Matt Bonner	Jay Triano
Chris Bosh

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Spurs Head Coach Gregg Popovich

On the game - "A lot of guys contributed tonight. It was a good win. We need a good win. We competed well and hung in long enough to win. It was a good effort."

On George Hill - "He was fantastic."

On Manu - "He’s a great player. Once he gets his rhythm back and feels comfortable, he’ll do wonderful. There will be periods during a game for a few minutes don’t go his way but all-in-all he did a good job. He was wonderful tonight."

On Richard Jefferson - "He’s feeling more and more comfortable. He’s getting more aggressive offensively. More importantly, he’s focused defensively and on the boards. That’s important for the team."

On scoring over 120 points - "Wins are always enjoyable. If one can’t enjoy a win, that’s a real problem."

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Manu Ginobili

On the game - "I had a great game. I needed to get hot and make shots and start to feel good again. It’s a tough game when two of your best players aren’t playing. We felt more responsibility as a team to take charge. I wasn’t thinking about making six 3-pointers. If you’re shooting well you feel more confident than when you are struggling. Toronto has a great offense but their defense isn’t so good yet. We have to start relying and trusting our defense more."

On Richard Jefferson - "He is starting to get the system more every game. He knows what we expect and he is really showing confidence. We know he is capable of scoring 20 points a game."

On George Hill - "He has been amazing this year. In the preseason he was our best player and he really stepped up in training camp. He has a reliable jumper and he led us in the first half of the game and then we all showed up more in the second half. His experience is really showing."

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Matt Bonner

On his two-handed dunk in the game - "It was definitely a career moment. I am happy that it was captured on film. That’s definitely something to show the grandkids one day."

On the game - "It really helps when you have teammates that have confidence in me to shoot the ball. It was fun tonight. It definitely wasn’t a defensive battle but we made a few more plays and hit a few a more shots. Our offense looked good we just have to keep working on our defense."

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Raptors Head Coach Jay Triano

When asked about all three point shots in the game - "We shot better from the 3-point line than they did. On the screen and roll we had a tough time with keeping guys in front of us. So we have to provide help and then the Spurs kicked it out for the 3’s. For the most part most of the shots were contested. We just have to do a better job of closing out guys. I wasn’t too concerned about the 3-point shots. 3-pointers happen because guys blow by. If you get straight line drives that that it makes it tough for a guy to stop the ball and get out to his man. We have to man up and keep the guys in front of us. We are not doing that right now."

When asked if the Spurs caused any problems when they went small - "I thought their smalls went past our smalls. I can’t think of too many times, other than early in the game, when one of our bigs got switched off on a small and had a hard time. Our bigs had a hard time keeping their smalls in front of them, so did our smalls. We’re just having a hard time stopping the penetration right now."

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Chris Bosh

On missing an opportunity with Duncan and Parker out - “We weren’t hungry for it. I don’t know if we underestimated them, but we didn’t come out and play hard like we needed to play. I think the opportunity was there for us. We missed a lot of early shots but we didn’t finish the job by getting the rebounds. That kind of kept them in the game. No matter what, they’re a good team and they have a lot of players who can play. Like I’ve said before, when guys have a chance to step up, usually they’re going to play well because they want to play. We just got caught standing around today.”

On the main factor in their performance tonight - “It’s just focus. We forced a lot of jumpers and they missed a lot. It’s all about wanting the ball and finishing the possession. Their guys were hungry for the ball and they got the second-chance points. I saw a couple of times when [Keith] Bogans was getting down there and getting the rebound and retaining the possession. No offense to him, but that just can’t happen. It’s just lack of focus. It’s like the ball is going up and you just want to look at the ball. You can’t look at the ball. You have to finish the possession. You have to put a body on your man and those are the things you need to focus on. It’s not easy. It takes effort.”

On how to turn things around in the middle of the game - “You just do it. Just get the ball. That’s all it is. A wise man told me a long time ago when I wanted to know the secret and the art to rebounding, and he said you just go get the ball. That was it. There’s not much you can say. There’s no science. You can sit here and break it down all day, but whatever. It always comes down to who wants the ball the most.”

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