Saturday, May 28, 2005
MIKE D'ANTONI
COACH D'ANTONI:COACH D'ANTONI: We just didn't -- they got us rattled mostly in the second quarter. I think that was the big quarter, 10 points was our doing and their doing.
They are a great defensive team. Seemed like we just got rattled and really played in a frenzy, just really tried to drive everything, force everything, and little bit of a mirror of the game that we played down here at the first of the year.
Settled down in the second half and gave us a little bit of a chance. But they just played longer, tougher and smarter than we did.
Q. You guys have been able to run against everybody this year and maintain a tempo. We saw in the last game with where that gradually got away from you where you slowed down. This game seemed like you never got in that consistent we're going to push the pace. What is it either about them or about you guys at this point that you can see?
COACH D'ANTONI: Only thing -- obviously they are a good team, so they make it very difficult to do anything. But at the same point I just think we get into a macho kind of thing that I have got to show you and it's almost when we grab a rebound we don't make the effort to run.
We just kind of like, we're fighting people and knocking them off or whatever. And we don't make that extra effort to go, we talked about it, also the ball just got stuck, got stuck in peoples hands. Everything is a one-on-one, I am going to be down your throat kind of thing. That's not going to make it against this team.
We talked about it at halftime. We did a lot better job in the second half. We got into some plays, finally executed a little bit, got some easy shots.
But it comes down to it's not -- almost like we're playing against them to show our manhood where, you know, we just need to play Phoenix Sun basketball. Can't worry about what they do and make little bit extra effort to run and get away from us. We're trying to get into clinches with them and slug it out and we're not going to do that.
Q. Unusual to have All-Star like Shawn Marion on the bench fourth quarter. What is it about this series or this particular game, he hasn't been able to get it going?
COACH D'ANTONI: He's (Marion) just struggling. You have to talk to him about it. Seems like he just hasn't found his rhythm a few games. Maybe it's them, maybe it's us. Shawn will have to come back and respond the next game. We definitely need everybody for this Game 4.
Q. Talking about needing everybody, you have got Stoudemire and Nash are doing what they do. Scoring good numbers. Not getting as much as you'd like from the bench. Talk about that?
COACH D'ANTONI: We got same the same as we got all year, that's not what is hurting us. Steven Hunter, I probably should have played him more first half. He did a pretty good job. We have to look at that one. Jimmy (Jackson) and Steve (Nash) are our two guys, that's what we have been going with all through the playoffs and probably the last three months of the season. We're okay there. That's not where we're getting beat.
Q. Gauge of the defense tonight?
COACH D'ANTONI: Good in spirits, just not tough enough. We didn't play tough enough, not for 48 minutes, not like they did. Kind of set a little bit of a tone, the jump ball. They only done it three times in a row on us. You would think third time you would think Ginobili might get it.
They are tougher right now than we are. We're going to have to find it in our -- one day and a half to come back and make a game out of it and try to win one. I know that we won't quit as we showed the second half, we'll come back. We have just got to do it for 48 minute and for some reason we're not doing it for 48 minutes.
Q. Steve Nash had 3 assists tonight. How did that happen, were they getting it out of his hands?
COACH D'ANTONI: You will have to ask him a little bit of what he thinks, but we just over penetrating and we just didn't get in open court. We have all these cross matches and everything. We didn't run. I know they scored a lot of points especially in the first, but we didn't -- we haven't made the effort to get the ball out or to run, some reason we're just not playing with the same kind of abandonment that we had done all year. That hurts Steve (Nash). He was probably over penetrating, getting too low. We have got to keep it out there. They are long in there. You have to talk to him. Can't be superman every night.
Q. They have beaten you twice, they went up in the first quarter. Do you think you guys are --
COACH D'ANTONI: Doesn't help to always be behind ten points. At the top two minutes, being down two or three. Bottom fell out obviously .
Q. Is it possible they are just -- this isn't your concern but are they playing at a level beyond what even you thought they could play and maybe better than they did when they won the Championship a couple of years ago?
COACH D'ANTONI: (Laughs.) Seems like it. It's pretty good insight. I hate to be the one that's complementing -- we still got one game.
Q. Offensively?
COACH D'ANTONI: They are playing very well. Gregg (Popovich) does a great job, and you talk about Ginobili and Duncan, they are playing as hard as I have seen anybody play and they are good on top of it. I don't mind the bad guys playing hard but when you got the good guys playing hard it makes it a lot tougher.
Q. There are a lot of teams that in this situation down 3-0 with the history of that it might not come out with a very good effort in Game 4. Are you concerned?
COACH D'ANTONI: No. Not one guy that's going to give up. It's not even going to be close, we're going to come out with everything we have got. No one wants to be swept, no one wants to have that on them. And we will lay it on the line. It's not going to be a problem.
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STEVE NASH
Q. Did they do anything differently covering the pick and roll; anymore emphasis they put on --
STEVE NASH: A little bit. I think we didn't make some of the shots we made in the past. So I don't think it was that different. I just thought we never got into a rhythm and flow. Some of that's making shots, some of that's the way they played us, but overall I just felt like when we couldn't find a rhythm we got down a little bit, we lost our energy, lost our enthusiasm. It took us a while to get that back. Second half I thought we really played hard, but we kind of got down and didn't play with a ton of energy for a stretch there in the second quarter. Really hurt us.
Q. They just beat you two games. They ran up a quick lead in this game. Do you guys think you got demoralized?
STEVE NASH: I thought there was a stretch in the second quarter we weren't on the same page and couldn't get any momentum, couldn't get any plays to stop their run. Kind of put our heads down. We just can't do that. We have proven in stretches that we can play with these guys. For us to put our heads down just made it impossible for us to come back no matter how well we played in the second half
Q. The fourth quarter push, where do you think you guys -- t do you think you guys got going at that point? What was the trouble in sustaining that?
STEVE NASH: I think Amare (Stoudemire) was playing great offensively, but I think the key was just desperation, I think we lost site of that in the second quarter that, you know, we're in a deep hole and there's not really much for us to lose at this point. We just need to keep going play with that desperation, and I think the fourth quarter we showed that and we got back in the game more or less, but the hole was a little bit insurmountable for that stretch where we didn't play with that desperation in the second quarter.
Q. You talked earlier about not knowing how much better you can play with Joe (Johnson) out there. Talk about how his presence kind of affected you, what you did out there?
STEVE NASH: I thought it was great. I actually was really proud of Joe for playing and very thankful of him for being out there and he played well, I don't think it had a negative effect on us at all. I thought, you know, I didn't play as well as I have. I missed some shots I should have made and turned the ball over a few too many times. That had nothing to do with Joe being out there. I need to play a little bit better. When Joe gets his legs back - hopefully there will be lots of time in this series for him to do that - but he played extremely well considering the circumstances.
Q. Does it feel like the Spurs have kind of beaten you at your own game to the extent they have been a defensive team they are winning this --
STEVE NASH: We really have a tough time stopping them. Tim (Duncan) just puts so much pressure on our defense in every situation just by being on the court everyone is leaning towards him. The other players are terrific players too and when you are constantly leaning towards Tim, the other guys are too good for that, and you know, but if you don't lean towards him, he can destroy a team. That's why they are a team that's won two championships and that's why we are down 3-0 is we can't -- we haven't had an answer to stop them yet.
Q. Coach said he's not worried at all that there is anyone on this roster who will just show up on Monday without an effort; do you feel the same way?
STEVE NASH: Yeah, we will come and play hard. I feel good about that. We got guys who want to compete and play hard. We got a stretch tonight where we didn't play as hard as we need to. I think that was a great lesson for us tonight. Everyone felt really bad for themselves at halftime. We had a better effort in the second half. So I think lesson learned, we will play a lot harder on Monday.
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