home jobs contact us
Our Clients:
Browse by Sport
Find us on ASAP sports on Facebook ASAP sports on Twitter
ASAP Sports RSS Subscribe to RSS
Click to go to
Asaptext.com
ASAPtext.com
ASAP Sports e-Brochure View our
e-Brochure

NBA FINALS: PISTONS v SPURS


June 15, 2005


Manu Ginobili


DETROIT, MICHIGAN: Practice Day

Q. How do you feel and are you going to be 100% for tomorrow?

MANU GINOBILI: Yeah, I will. I'm okay today. I'm going to be better tomorrow. So try to get ready, not only my body, but mentally, too.

Q. What do you remember about your first year in being guarded by Bruce during practice? We asked Duncan what Bowen's defense was like and he said we should ask you.

MANU GINOBILI: Well, it was a matter of being every day against him, and it was tough because we know he's one of best defenders in this league, and it really helped me, because he's a guy that takes a lot of pride of playing D, not getting beaten, and he studies you a lot, too. So it was a great learning process for me from training camp to even going through the first four or five months of competition.

Q. There's a little confusion over your injury, a lot of people thought it was your knee. Can you talk about it. Was it a bruised quad? Did it tighten up overnight? Any swelling?

MANU GINOBILI: It's right above the knee. I had it for the first time against Phoenix, I think. So if I get kneed again in the same spot, it just hurts me. But I'm going to be fine, doing treatments. It's not going to limit me for tomorrow.

Q. You said that when you first came in you came back physically and mentally, explain how you come back mentally from your first off-game after two really big games?

MANU GINOBILI: Because we didn't do too many things right. We allowed them too many offensive rebounds, we turned the ball over too much, we didn't execute that well. We made too many mistakes. We have to be ready mentally to be more focused and play with more aggressiveness, because we can't let them get us in our heels. So I think it's not only, you know, have energy and but playing well and executing well.

Q. But you personally, too, will it be tough for you to come back from that game?

MANU GINOBILI: No, no. I think we're going to be fine. We've been through a lot of difficulties for the whole year. We just played a bad game. They played a good one. So we are confident in ourselves. We know we can do it.

Q. How would you describe how they played defense against you personally yesterday?

MANU GINOBILI: Aggressively, they help a lot on every pick-and-roll, they collapse the paint. We tried to move the ball but we didn't do it as efficiently as we did in Game 2. So we've just got to give them credit and we've got to try to find the way. I think it's the fact of not playing a great game as a team, I don't think that it's so much about how they played D on me, but on everybody. And if Tim didn't have a good game, I didn't have a good game, it's tough. Tony as our go-to guy, it's going to be tough. Not many of our guys were playing well.

Q. What do you have to do specifically going into Game 4 so that you can work around some of that stuff?

MANU GINOBILI: What stuff?

Q. Just the way they played all of you guys a little more aggressively.

MANU GINOBILI: Just playing as aggressive as them. As I said after Game 1 or 2, I don't care if I score 25 points. If I score eight but I move the ball well, make less turnovers, execute better, I think we have enough weapons to score, than me or only Tim. I think if Tim is having a day off, Tony and me can score more, and either Robert or Bruce, whoever, the same if Tony is not playing well or with anybody. We've just got to move the ball better and find the open shooter.

Q. When you came into this league, you were a bench player and then you became a role player and now you're a guy that a lot of people are looking at now. I know the other day you said you didn't feel that comfortable with it, but I wanted to ask you, are you ready to deal with that and how difficult do you think it will be to deal as a spotlight player, where people are kind of looking at you?

MANU GINOBILI: It's not such a big difference. You just realize that you draw more attention and defenses prepare a little more for you. But if you think -- obviously I deal with that my whole life. Every summer I play with the National Team, where I'm the go-to guy. I played four years in Italy, where I'm the go-to guy. I was the go-to guy. So it's not that it's something so different, so new for me. It's just NBA Finals and the media, you know, is multiplied by ten, so everybody's asking questions, the same questions all the time. So it can take you out of the basics a little bit. But I don't feel that it's going to be a whole problem for me.

Q. Just kind of follow-up on that, do you feel that's just your temperament and that's how you approach things, or do you think there's a difference in being a very good player and a player who is willing to accept the responsibilities of being a star and that obligation every night? Is that something you've prepared yourself for or temperamentally is that just who you are?

MANU GINOBILI: I think it's hard to prepare for something that is not the right thing for you. I think I'm ready and I'm willing to do take it. Of course, I've got too much prove. I've got to keep getting better, keep playing more solid and every game, but I'm willing to take it and I think I am ready.

Q. Richard Hamilton says he's very sore after playing you, you're probably one of most physical guys in the league, you play with every single part of your body, you hit hard, etc. Is that a fair description of Manu Ginobli?

MANU GINOBILI: I don't know, I never played against myself. But I'm not the one that has to be chasing him all over the place or probably for him, guarding me. I have a particular way of playing and I go to the basket a lot and hit and get hit a lot. But I think defensively, it's all Bruce Bowen, having to chase him, bump him and be close all the time.

Q. Having been a go-to player all your life to coming to the pros, how much has it affected your game playing with a player like Tim and especially in this series and the last few games, what has it meant for you as a player when Tim plays well and when Tim doesn't play well like he did last night?

MANU GINOBILI: Well, of course we are a different team when Duncan plays well and he's dominating, because he opens the court for everybody and we all have room, open shots and everything, because somebody got to go at him to double team. But I think we played some good games without him being dominant. So we just don't have to blame it on him, of course he didn't have a great game, okay. We've just got to go over it and all of the other players have got to step up. We just didn't have enough players to play good to succeed in such a tough arena like this one.

Q. Talk a little bit about the rebounding edge that the Pistons have enjoyed in two out of the three games here so far?

MANU GINOBILI: Yeah, I think we only dominated them in Game 1, but it's a big key in this game. They have very good offensive rebounders. They have got like 20, I don't know how many, but too many points off those offensive rebounds. So if we consider both teams defensive teams and we let them score 20 points of offensive rebounds and another 20 of turnovers, 40 points in these kind of games are enormous, you know, there are too many. So we've really got to improve and try to cut those both in half for having an opportunity to win.

End of FastScripts...

About ASAP SportsFastScripts ArchiveRecent InterviewsCaptioningUpcoming EventsContact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297