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Manu Ginobili Interview

 


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/ May 23, 2005

Manu GinobiliThe San Antonio Spurs beat the Suns 111-108 to take Game 2 of the 2004-05 NBA Western Conference finals. Here's what San Antonio Spurs shooting guard Manu Ginobili after the game:

Q. Coach Popovich says you do something every night that gives him pause, is the way he puts it. That makes him think, drives him crazy.

Manu Ginobili: What was it?

Q. I would think maybe going behind the back, maybe reverse layup with the game on the line?

Manu Ginobili: I didn't try to make him go crazy or anything like that. I just saw or thought that was the best opportunity for me. They were very concerned on not giving me the left hand, so I just tried to go back to my right. It's not what I feel more comfortable doing, but I think I can and that's what I tried to do.

Q. Coach Popovich had also said that coming down the stretch they wanted the ball in your hands. What did he say to you about what he wanted you to do down the stretch?

Manu Ginobili: He didn't say anything in particular. He's been trusting me a lot in the last games when the game is down the stretch and the last minute or two minutes he's trusting me a lot. So I am trying to use those opportunities as well as I can. I am very happy that I gave that confidence back to him and that I could make those couple of shots or couple of passes. And help my team to win. But he didn't tell me anything in particular, just try to find the best shot.

Q. What does that mean for your team not only win two here, but winning when they played as well as they did shooting 55, 56 percent?

Manu Ginobili: Well, that means that we can still improve. Coming here I never thought that if they shot 52, 53 percent in both games combined we're going to win both games. It's not us. We usually keep our opponents in 40% and they are shooting more than 50. It's strange. We feel somehow awkward winning like this, but of course we're very good, glad, but keep working on it because we got to keep them under 45 if it's possible.

Q. How much is experience making a difference now in the fourth quarter but in this series overall?

Manu Ginobili: Maybe we have been together more time, we know each other better. But I don't think it was a matter of experience. They are just a great team. They couldn't knock down a couple of shots. We did. Defensively in the last 8 minutes in both games we did very well, so that's always the big difference here. Playoff games, the game is so close, just a couple of mistakes and you lose the game. So we didn't do it.

Q. The play after the timeout with 2:30 left was designed to get the three pointer for Robert (Horry). Can you take us through that play, what was designed to happen?

Manu Ginobili: I don't think it was designed for that. I think he's taking credit when he shouldn't, Pop. Probably he told Robert (Horry), Robert told me. Robert came to my ear, told me that he was going to be open in the corner so but I didn't hear it in the timeout. I shouldn't say it probably. (Laughter.) He told me that he was going to be open there and I just look for him. We know how good he is down the stretch taking those shots, so we just trust him.

Q. Give us more huddle secrets. Up 3 with 4 seconds to go. Is there talk of grabbing Steve (Nash) in the back court to shoot two? He burned Dallas in the same kind of play, hit a 3 sending it into overtime. Any talk of fouling him?

Manu Ginobili: No. That's something we don't do. Coach Popovich doesn't like it. We prefer to make them take a contested shot. I think that was the difference. We almost double teamed him, instead of shooting wide open 3. If he makes that shot, we just we died or we go to overtime doing is what we do. So we just take it.

Q. You mentioned the fact that it is a bit awkward to play like this. Talk about all the offense you generated in this series and especially in the fourth quarter?

Manu Ginobili: I think moving the ball, playing pick and rolls and making them adjust or chase us is a big key. They don't like playing D so much. They want the ball in their hands to run and take threes, that kind of game. So sometimes we hurry up a lot, but as long as we keep playing those pick and rolls, moving the ball, make them work on defense, we're going to be fine. We're going to take open shots.

But sometimes it's so hard because they get in rhythm, you get a little crazy out of rhythm, and they always got a 10 0 streak or a 15 2 or whatever. So we've got to be very conscious about that knowing that it may happen at any time.

Q. Over the last three years in the playoffs your numbers have improved significantly each year. How much more comfortable are you? How has your comfort level and confidence changed over the last three years to now?

Manu Ginobili: Totally. Of course it's a whole different thing for me. But I knew it was going to be like that. I didn't expect coming to the NBA to a great Championship team and pretend to have the ball in my hands all the time or create for the others. I knew I had to earn confidence slowly doing little things, getting steals, drawing a charge, getting important rebounds. So slowly I started improving, the whole team started to trust me more. It's a matter of that.










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