Quotes: Spurs @ Mavericks: November 18, 2009


Gregg Popovich
Tim Duncan
Matt Bonner

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Gregg Popovich

On the game
"Both teams were physical and it is always a good rivalry when these two teams play. Down the stretch and in overtime they made some shots and did a good job."

On Tim Duncan down the stretch
"Timmy, he played a lot of minutes and did everything he could do to help us win, so he was great."

On George Hill's performance in the absence of Tony Parker
"George Hill is getting better and better all the time. He just probably defers a little bit too much right now. He is really an explosive player and he is almost being too nice on the court. We want him to be even more aggressive, but he is slowly but surely becoming a heck of a player at both ends of the court for us."

What did it mean to have Manu Ginobili being hurt early in the game

"Well the same thing it did to Dallas to have Josh (Howard) out, so it was tit for tat in that regard. But, Manu does a lot of things for us especially down the stretch in games. We missed having him in that situation. He obviously will be out for some amount of time, but I don't really know how serious it is. He told me that he will be out for tomorrow's game, but after that I just don't really know."

On his team's defensive intensity in the second half
"I thought the effort was great."

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Tim Duncan

On Overtime
"The overtime period was the difference, and I played very badly in the overtime period and Dirk really showed up and took his team over the top. Great effort all night long, great effort to get back into it, and just a disappointing overtime period."

On another classic Mavs-Spurs game
"It seems like it always ends up that way. Great game for us, good experience game for us. A lot of different things happened out there, and we had a lot of new guys on the floor combination wise. A good experience for us, but obviously we wish we could have pulled it out here."

On Manu's injury
"It hurt not having him in there but I thought we did a good job of not worrying about it, getting back together. We had guys step up and make plays. I thought George Hill played well. Antonio made some big shots for us, and we were right in it."

Did this game have a playoff intensity to it?
"I'm not even going to answer that. We're 10 games in and it was a very tough game and an unfortunate loss for us, but the intensity is the intensity of a regular season game. It changes in the playoffs and you can feel it."

On George Hill being an explosive player
"He's feeling his way out. He's a second year player and he's got a really great upside. We've just got to take our time with it. He's going to find his places to attack, he's going to find his places to take his shots. You could see a few stretches there where he's one of the most explosive players on the floor. His confidence will continue to build and with Tony out he's getting a lot of time, a lot of up and down, so it's good for him."

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Matt Bonner

On the game
"You’ve got to give all the credit to them. They did a great job battling all night and at the end of the day I think both teams played really hard on D, but I think they just ended up making a few more shots than us."

Is Dirk the hardest person to guard?
"Like I’ve said a thousand times, I just hope he’s having an off night. I can play perfect defense, contest his shots, jump as high as I possibly can, and I’m still not blocking it. I just hope to make it harder for him and just hope he misses."

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