SONICS ASSOCIATE HEAD COACH DWANE CASEY:

On the game:
Tonight is a good example of when you don’t have Ray Allen. He and Coach (Nate) McMillan are two guys we missed tonight. Again our condolences go out to Coach Mac and his family, which is far more important than any basketball game. San Antonio is a championship team for a reason. They brought it in every area of the game, whether it was penetrating our D, second shots. I thought they established how they wanted to play early in the game by attacking their hoop and we didn’t. They established that early and we just couldn’t recover from it.

On the Sonics offense:
We played better in the second half and got into a little bit better rhythm. They just totally committed two people to Rashard (Lewis) all night. They brought (Tim) Duncan on him every time there was an iso. They did a really good job of taking him out. And we tried to get him shots and touches, and they committed two and sometimes three people to him. Ron (Murray), bless his heart, he hadn’t played a while and it’s not fair to him. He shouldn’t be judged by tonight’s game; he’s a much better player. He created and we needed that. He tried but he just didn’t shoot well. It was not his fault whatsoever.

On what the Sonics need from Lewis and Murray:
We need everyone collectively. We shot 41 percent from the field. Our problem is not offense. We’ve got to get stops on the defensive end to establish some offensive rhythm and we never got that. We’ve got to get stops. Manu Ginobili got into the paint freely and their big guys were crashing the boards.

On the Spurs:
They hit on all cylinders tonight. We tried everything we could. They have no glaring weaknesses on their team.

GUARD ANTONIO DANIELS:

On the Spurs:
They have guys who are capable of hitting shots. When they space the floor, that is a good shooting basketball team.

On where the Sonics go from here:
Just like all year, we win and put it behind us and we lose and put it behind us. We need to put this one behind us and learn from it. Kind of take it personally that we lost by 20 on our own floor.

SAN ANTONIO COACH GREGG POPOVICH:

On the game:
I thought we played well tonight but obviously the Sonics gave us a huge break tonight. I guess we took advantage of it but not having Ray is a very big difference because he’s a great player and he leads that team. We were lucky in that regard. Of course it was a tough atmosphere for their group. Our thoughts go out to Nate and his family in a real difficult time.

On defending the Sonics:
Teams are made up of pieces and holes. The pieces fit into the holes and not having Ray is one less weapon out there. When you are an attack and kick team, you have guys out there waiting to shoot those threes and that makes things a little bit different. We were able to double team Rashard a lot more because we didn’t have Ray out there to worry about as much.

On Tony Parker's performance:
Year by year he is becoming more of a point guard. He came in as a scoring guard and that’s not the easiest thing. He’s becoming a better and smarter player.

FORWARD TIM DUNCAN:

On the game:
This is a big game. We approached it as such. Unfortunately, they were without their best player and coach, but we have lost too many games this season to teams without their best player. That was a conscious effort knowing not to let down. Just because they are undermanned they are not going to just give it up. We just tried to stay on them early.

On rebounding:
They are one of the best offensive rebounding teams in the league. We wanted our one, two, and three [guards and small forward] to go out and get five or six boards.

On the Sonics:
They made their runs there for a while. Their shots were going down and you saw the energy come back, but I thought we did a good job of controlling the game. They made a run and we came back, made a shot, and kind of took the air out of the building. I think we kind of kept them on their heels.

GUARD TONY PARKER:

On the game:
Tonight we were very motivated. We didn’t want to lose to them three times in a row. We know Seattle is the best offensive rebounding team. They really go hard to the rebounds. We just wanted to help Timmy out on the boards. I thought we did a great job tonight.

Notes: