San Antonio Spurs Head Coach Gregg Popovich:On impact of Kawhi Leonard:“He did a good job at both ends of the floor. He scored for us. Defensively he got his hands on a lot of balls. He created a lot of situations that helped us.”On Nuggets cutting it to five towards the end:“As much as these guys have played together, they should be able to hold it together at the end of a game.”San Antonio Spurs Forward Kawhi Leonard:
On his game tonight:“I don’t know. I’m just out there playing basketball.”On what he was trying to do defensively:“I had a lot of opportunities to get my hands on the ball and tried to get blocks. I’m out there trying to put that effort every night, but if the ball doesn’t come, the game is different. Just being active on the defensive end, I’m trying not to get in the passing lanes that much. I’m more of a solid defender, trying to stop my man from getting in the paint, I don’t like to gamble a lot.”San Antonio Spurs Forward Tim DuncanOn Kawhi Leonard:“Every aspect (of the game), he was great all around. Although, I do believe they gave him some of my blocks. He was great on defense, stole the ball a bunch, strong plays inside, just all around, he was all over the place.”On tough upcoming schedule:“Pop is a master of that, he’s been through enough seasons and he understands what we want to do. We have to rest at times, the players we want to go out there and play every game, but that’s really going to wear us down at some point. There’s a happy medium out there somewhere, if we can keep minutes down and sometimes playing some back-to-backs, the older guys can’t (play). We just have to play it by ear and see how it goes.”
Denver Nuggets Head Coach Brian Shaw:On the game:“What we missed were opportunities: we didn’t finish inside well with our bigs, we weren’t efficient on the break, both of those areas where [San Antonio] threw it inside to their bigs, they scored, they got opportunities on the break, they scored and our 21 turnovers for 30 points is just not going to get it done. That is the difference in the game. My message was that if I have to play the five smallest guys that are going to fight, switch one through five, then that is what I am going to do. I rode it out with Jusuf [Nurkic]; I like his physicality. He is going to make a lot of mistakes; he is going to foul a lot as a rookie, as a newcomer in this league. But he will contest and challenge everything; he is going to meet it head on with physicality and that is why he was out there on the floor for as long as he was to finish the game for us.”On needing toughness on the court tonight:“Our guys are pressing; I know they are tired and banged up. We are shorthanded but I don’t want to use any of that as an excuse but we have to find a way to get it done. We can’t continue to be pushed around on the inside against the opposing bigs. I thought that last night, as well as tonight, that [Jusuf Nurkic’s] physicality was something that we needed. Like I said, I know he is going to make mistakes but he is setting the tone when he is out there that nothing is going to come easy and our other big’s have to do that as well if they want to play on the floor.”On consistently tough second quarters:“The ball, for whatever reason, seems to stick; it is hard to get penetration. Like we have said all along, anytime that Ty [Lawson] is not in the game, it is going to be tough for us to get in our offense and to get anything going; that was evident again tonight. We dribbled around, swung the ball, got jump shot happy, in isolation situations, just going one-on-one and that plays right into San Antonio’s hands. They are a team that is going to hold serve. We get impatient or make a mistake and they capitalized on it. The game goes from being tied to a five-point lead for them, serve and volley, back and forth and we make another mistake. They go on another quick run and then it is a double-digit lead. That is what they did. I think tonight is the first time that we have held a team under 100 points and didn’t win. Our defense was good enough to win tonight but our offense hurt us. The turnovers, the 21 turnovers for 30 points; we had been doing well in the turnover department for the most part before. A lack of efficiency during stretches of not being able to get a look at the basket and score.”Denver Nuggets Center Jusuf Nurkic:On playing against future Hall of Famer Tim Duncan:“You know, Tim Duncan will be in the Hall of Fame, but we lost the game in the second (quarter) when we scored like twenty points (12) or something like that. We tried to get back in the game, but we couldn’t.”On what happened in the second quarter:“I don’t know man, I think we just lost ourselves – I have no comment for that. We played together, but just couldn’t get it done.”On what he was thinking when he first matched up with Tim Duncan:“Nothing special – players are players. I tried to play defense, but he has a reputation here, he’s one of the best of all-time.”Denver Nuggets Forward JJ Hickson:
On team being inconsistent:“I don’t have an answer to fix that. We just have to stay together and trust each other. It’s a long season we have to continue to get better and get some wins. ”On the fourth quarter:“We brought the lead down to single digits and got back into the game but we didn’t have enough energy. There is no excuse for us but San Antonio is just a great team and played better than us tonight.”