Posted: April 17, 2003

With a Phoenix-San Antonio playoff series looking likely, Suns.com spoke with Spurs’ guard Steve Smith prior to their final regular season meeting this past weekend. The 12-year veteran, who averaged 19 minutes off the bench this season, shared his thoughts on the Suns and the maturation of Stephon Marbury.

Suns.com: You guys boast the best record in the NBA, yet won’t exactly get an easy draw in the first round. The Suns have given you some trouble this season.

Smith: Yeah, this team has been playing us pretty good. I think Frank Johnson, you have to take your hat off to the job he’s done. And Stephon Marbury’s always been a great player. I’ve known him since he was in high school and his first year in college, playing against him at Georgia Tech when I was in Atlanta. What he’s done as far as controlling this team and being the leader, making everybody else around him better and in the process making his game better, I think he’s the catalyst of this team. And the other guys are just filling in, playing a role and they’re doing a lot of great things defensively. They’re playing real well.

Suns.com: You mentioned Stephon. He’s particularly played well against you guys this year. Why is that, you think?

Smith: I don’t know why. He gets up for us. Sometimes you just have a team that you play better against than other teams. It’s not been so good for us in the regular season, but maybe in the playoffs he won’t play as well.

Suns.com: Tell us about playing against him when he was at Georgia Tech?

Smith: I remember picking him up from his dorm one day and me and him going to play one on one. He was great then. I was in the prime of my career and he was still great. I was impressed. Just a guy, a kid who wanted to go play one on one against a pro. A kid that wanted to get better. A kid that said he was going to be in the NBA, and he only played one year at Georgia Tech and was in the NBA.

Suns.com: What are your thoughts on Marbury’s running mate, Penny Hardaway? Here’s a guy with a lot of experience like yourself, who you will probably find yourself matched up with a time or two in this series.

Smith: He’s a guy I’ve known for a long time, a dangerous guy. Unfortunately for himself, he’s had injuries, but I think whenever he’s healthy – and unfortunately for us he’s getting healthy; he had a triple-double the other night, he’s putting up some big points – he’s a guy who could definitely be the X-factor. He brings another guy who can do a lot of things and cause matchup problems. He can post, he can dribble, he can play the point. He can do things at 6-7 that a lot of guys can’t do. It just puts another point guard out there with Stephon and makes it hard.

Suns.com: Last question and we’ll let you go. What do you guys need to do to be successful against the Suns in the playoffs?

Smith: We have to rebound. I think that’s our advantage. We’re bigger than them. They hustle, but I think if we can limit them to one shot, and when we miss shots if we can get the offensive boards, I think that’s where we can hurt them, rebounding on both ends.