Quotes: Spurs @ Lakers: 4/4/10

on Manu Ginobili
"He's been playing All-Star caliber basketball for about a month and a half now. He's taken over the team. He's done a great job."

on Manu Ginobili not backing off when the game got a little bit physical
"Manu never backs off in his life. He's won NBA championships, and world championships, and Olympic championships. He's a veteran winner for a long long time so he's not going to back off from anything."

on the team playing without any true point guard
"I give a little bit of credit to Manu. He kept us together. We just switched off between going to him and going to Timmy. They played together well. A little worried about everything that's coming up now without George. It's going to be difficult to sustain that and have Manu play the point in all these games coming up. So we'll have to figure something out."

on the team's play this season
"I think contribute that to the character of the guys. We've had a pretty mediocre year up until the last month and a half and they never gave in. They just continued to try to get better. Now they are playing their best basketball. I feel badly for them that the injuries are hitting them this late in the year, but they seem to be able to ignore it and continue to play."

on Tim Duncan
"It was great to see him be creative again tonight. He found ways to use the left hand; he used the jump-hook; he shot jumpers. He did a good job of varying his offense. That's when he's at his best when he does that."

on the Lakers
"They're a solid team. They have so many weapons. Today, they missed big shots. They are always coming back. They're going to keep fighting. They're going to keep playing. They hustle. They play hard defense too. They are a tough team."

on whether today's win would help the Spurs in a potential series against the Lakers in the playoffs
"I don't think so. Playoffs is a totally different story. I don't think it would really count. Actually it would really make them more upset. Playoffs, everybody starts from scratch."

on the injuries piling up at point guard
"I've been willing to play point guard for about 12 years now. I might finally get my chance."

on the importance of today's win
"It's huge for us. We're not even worried about the playoff race. We're just game to game worrying about the wins, who we're playing, things like that. Huge win for us to stay where we're at. As I said we're just going to continue to build on it."

on Lakers bench play today
"It was unfortunate for us. We couldn't get them going tonight and we had to mess with our minutes for a while. Things were not going well out there so they could not get a consistent run at times. They played for shorter minutes. Six and five [minutes] so it was a consequence that they didn't really get in the flow of the game. We had too many things going on out there that were not right."

on Lakers offensive play today
"They took away a lot of pass opportunities for us and they did a really good job that way. Our reactive passes and subsequent reactions to that I thought were appropriate. As consequence we got out of rhythm. Pau was terrific all day and I actually probably wore him down a bit more than I wanted to."

on Ron Artest 3-point shots
"He has not found a consistent shot. He has not been able to get consistent with that 3-point shot right now. He has been pretty good during the year."

on possibly facing the Spurs in the playoffs
"We helped them out today, but I don't think that will be an end result every time. They played pretty well so we will see."

on how to run of the offense better in games like today's
"It is how you run your offense. A lot of today was standing around like Pau and getting shots in isolation and there are not a whole lot of second chance opportunities from that. Some of the rhythm shots are opportunities but we didn't make them. We did not make the opportunities for ourselves."

on this game foreshadowing physical play because of the potential postseason matchup
"It don't matter. We don't care who it is, whether it's San Antonio, Portland or Oklahoma (City). We're going to play our basketball and it will be chippy in there."

on how the Spurs were able to pull away and hold the lead throughout today's game
"I think they controlled the tempo today. This was their tempo, from the beginning. You know, we can play both styles. But we didn't make shots tonight. I think, defensively, we did a good job. There were stretches with opportunities to get back in the ball game and we just couldn't put the ball in the hole."

on if his injured fingered affected his shooting performance
"No. I just missed a lot of opportunities and I can live with that. I'm going to get those looks in the playoffs and I'll take my chances there."

on the Lakers' play in the post today
"I think we used the post pretty well tonight. More than usual and I'm happy about it. But again we always have got to try to get that balance and get the ball to move side-to-side. So once the ball moves it might come back, it might not."

on what the Lakers have to do better if they face the Spurs in the playoffs
"Just make sure we contain the pick and roll better… I don't know how many times they ran the pick and roll with (Ginobili) and obviously he's very good at it. So we've got to make sure we stop him from getting in the lane and creating all those plays."

on his first game back from his back injury
"It felt good. The back felt good out there. My timing was a little off but that will come, that's nothing. But it was fun to be back out there."