Quotes: Spurs vs. Suns: 4/14/12

(When asked if not playing Danny Green in the second half was because of an injury…)
“No, I was just giving him some rest. He has been playing a lot. It was a good opportunity to give him a little bit of a rest.”

(On whether it was the best half he had performed all season…)
"Yes it was. Pretty much I hit some shots early, got a layup and a dunk early on. It was a great start for me and was a lot of fun.”

(On if he has an eye on the current NBA seeding and if it matters to him)
"It doesn’t matter. Honestly, we’re going to end up where we end up as there’s no reason to sit there and study. We’re going to play these next games as best as we can, win or lose, and we’re going to end up where we end up. We’re in a great position right now and hopefully we can end on top. If we don’t, hopefully we’re number two as we can deal with that."

(On their back-to-back-to-back games and if Pop will manage their minutes…)
"You never know what Obi-Wan (Coach Popovich) is going to do. I know at the end of the day these guys are going to be ready to play. We had success in our last back-to-back-to-back. So with that, there’s no reason for us to lay down in any of these games. We want to finish on a great note and build our defense that is going to help us win in the playoffs. That’s our focus."

(Anything good things come out of tonight’s game…)
“I really like the way the second unit played. They played really hard and they almost got us back in the game, but at the end of the third quarter when Patty Mills hit that three it really hurt us because it took their lead back to a 17 or 18 point lead for them. They just took us out of the game so early with starting the game 22-4; it was just an uphill battle from there.”

(Thoughts on being one and a half games out and playing their next five of six games at home…)
“Well it bodes well if we win and if we don’t win then it doesn’t. There are no guarantees when we are going home to play, but it is a tough schedule. There are games at home that we expect to win regardless of who we play. We play the Spurs again and Oklahoma City, the Clippers, Portland and Denver and all those are tough games, but I expect us to win those games at home.”

(Down 22-4, what did you have to see to get Steve Nash back in the game…)
“Nothing, he was not going to go back into the game. He was not feeling well and we are not going to risk putting him back in there and miss the rest of the season. Steve (Nash) and Grant (Hill) were not going to play anymore anyways.”

(On guarding Tim Duncan early in the game…)
“Well we missed easy shots and you have to actually guard him. You have to be somewhere in the area he is in but we just were not good in any areas on defense throughout the game. We turned the ball over, our transition defense was not very good and we did not do a good job of guarding and we also gave up a lot of second shots. We put all those things together and it is going to end up a 22-4 deficit.”

(On how Grant Hill’s physical level of play…)
“It was aright. Back-to-back was not great. But I will get a day of rest and hopefully be ready for Monday.”

(On a potential injury during the game…)
“It was before the game. I tweaked it against Memphis. I struggled to play last night but got through it. Tonight I could tell I wasn’t great but I tried to play. It was just one of those situations were it would go down hill every step I took. (I was) lucky to get out when I did. I tweaked my hip in Memphis. (It was) my right hip. I don’t remember anything. I got in bed in Houston that night after the game and all of a sudden my hip was killing me. We worked at it for two days to get ready to play against Houston. Mike and Aaron did a good job just to get me on the court last night and I was able to get through it.”

(On still having a possible playoff position…)
“We are not out of it. Here we are and we are not out of it. We have got to drive on it and enjoy it and see what we can do.”