NBA FINALS: PISTONS v SPURS

June 12, 2005

Manu Ginobili

MANU GINOBILI: Yes, I knew it was going to be harder for me to finish at the rim. So I tried to -- because I knew they were going to be worried about it, so I thought a little more on trying to find the open guys, move the ball and be patient.

MANU GINOBILI: Of course you appreciate it, it's beautiful. But it's something that none of us are thinking and got to be thinking. It's something that can take you out of the main goal; that is, making your teammates better, play well. You just don't have to care about that. Once we win the Championship, in those ten minutes you are going to think about it, but it's not something that I'm really thinking about.

MANU GINOBILI: Well, this game, it has been easier. We played really well. We passed the ball extremely well. If you see the stats, out of those 29 field goals, 23 came from assists, and that's huge for us. That's what we've been talking the last two days. So we had a great game, but I don't think it's been easy. We are working really hard and it's been tough. They came back from a 22-point lead pretty quick. So we've got to be concentrated for 48 minutes, because they are a great team, very professional. They have been in this situation, so you've got to be smart.

MANU GINOBILI: It was very important for us. He wasn't able to find his shot in the first game, and we need that. When he's wide open in the corner, we're going to look for him, because he's very reliable. Today, he just forgot about Game 1, keep doing the same job on Rip, and make himself available there in the conner. He did a great job on penetrating, passing the ball, so overall he would have a great game.

MANU GINOBILI: About the first question, no, we really don't care. Even though a lot of people have been talking about us, saying that we were going to get here or win the Championship, we usually didn't get much credit since I'm here. So we know who we are, we know how we play, how good we are. So we've just got to stay humble. If people don't give us credit, we just don't care. We have to keep working really hard. And the second question, I forgot already. (Laughter).

MANU GINOBILI: If we were in their situation right now, we would be very upset and not want to make any more mistakes. We bet that Game 3 is going to be so tough with their crowd on their side, they are going to be very pumped up for them and they are going to play even tougher defensively. We just have to be aware of that, knowing it's going to happen. Winning in their arena is very hard. So we've just got to be patient and try to get to the last quarter tied, two points down or two points up and put the pressure on them.

MANU GINOBILI: Yeah, sometimes it is. So far, this season, we did it pretty well. We lost the first one against Denver and then we reacted after every win very well. Against Seattle, similar. We made one mistake against Phoenix. In Game 4, we relaxed a little bit so. We really hope that that doesn't happen again. It's going to be tough, because it's not that it depends only on us. They are a very good team, too. So we are going to try to be very talkative with each other, try to help and if you see somebody that is being a little flat, try to lift them up.