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NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: THUNDER v SPURSJune 4, 2012Manu GinobiliSAN ANTONIO, TEXAS: Game Five Oklahoma City – 108 San Antonio – 103 Q. Can you talk about the last shot? Did you get what you wanted? MANU GINOBILI: Well, not as open as we wanted. But at least I could let it fly. It didn't look bad, but it was fading to the right. It wasn't my best shot, of course, but I didn't have options. They played good D. They realized I was coming to that corner, and they closed out. So we had to improvise, and it wasn't a great shot, but it wasn't a bad one, either. It just didn't go in. Q. Can you talk about the decision of Pop starting you tonight and how it affected your approach to this game? MANU GINOBILI: No, it didn't affect. I know that sometimes it's going to happen, depending on what he thinks is going on, and he told me this morning, I think, that I was going to start. Same approach. I just want to get on the court, do what I can do to help the team win, and that's it. I knew that with me starting, I have the possibility to play more minutes, so I knew I had to be ready for that. But besides that, no, no changes. Always the same approach. Q. You guys made that 11‑0 run in the fourth quarter and got it back within two. What got you guys back, and what did you notice out of them in terms of their toughness to hold onto the win? MANU GINOBILI: To tell you the truth, I don't even remember. They were‑‑ what I do remember is they were rolling, they were making every shot. They got like an 11, 12‑point run, and we came back, we started to play better D. We made them turn the ball over a little bit more and just made some shots. But basketball is a game of runs, so it's going to happen multiple times in a game, especially against a team like them or us. We can play, so we know and they know that when you are in a drought like that then you have chances‑‑ when something clicks, both teams are capable of making good runs. The thing is that we were the team that was always trying to make runs. We were never up except at the beginning. So you've got to give them credit. They played a very good game, and we were always behind and making a great effort just to try to get the game close. Q. Can you talk about what has happened in the series? How have they been able to go on this three‑game run when you started out so well? MANU GINOBILI: They are a great team. We are a good team, great team, too. It just happens. I mean, the same way we won two, they can win three and now we can win two. We respect them a lot, even when we were 2‑0, nobody was thinking that it was going to be easy at all. But of course we were optimistic. We needed this game, and they got it, so now we've got to go to Oklahoma City and try to do what they did today. That's it. Q. Do you think you'll be able to recover emotionally after losing three in a row after being on such a high? MANU GINOBILI: Do we have another choice? It's not that we have a Game 8 or 9 to recover, so it's either win or go home. So we have to. It's our job. So nobody is going to feel sorry about ourselves, we've just got to go compete. We know it's hard to beat them there, but it's what we have to do. We've got to step up and play the best game of the season. Q. The Thunder forced 21 turnovers tonight. What did they do defensively to force turnovers? MANU GINOBILI: They are very active. They are young, athletic, long, and it's not the first time that happened. I think it was Game 3 if I'm not mistaken that we turned the ball over 20‑plus times. Yeah, it was one of the worst parts of our game. When we give them the ball that easy, they just punish you. They are good, and if you just say, here you go, attack, you have no chance. So if we couldn't have done that, our chances could have increased. So we've really got to take care of the ball a little bit more. If not, we have no chance. Q. Can you talk about Kevin Durant? You didn't have him, but he wasn't a factor and then all of a sudden he was the factor for the Thunder coming back. MANU GINOBILI: He's always a factor. Sometimes he can step aside for a little bit and give room to Harden or Westbrook, but he's always a threat. So easy for him to score that whenever you blink, he can get going and get seven, nine points in a minute. We saw what happened in Game 4. He was the main reason why we lost that one. And he had a nice stretch I think it was late in the third or early in the fourth. So we know the kind of talent he has. He's either the best player in the world or one of the top three or five, I don't know. It can happen. So it's not something that surprised us. Q. With the changes they made between Game 2 and 3 defensively, were they that radical to cause all these problems for you guys? MANU GINOBILI: You know, changes takes a little bit to adjust, but I'm not sure that it was because of the changes. Not many times when two great teams play against each other, Xs and Os is what makes a difference. Key shot here and there, approach, good defense, getting the other team to turn the ball over 20 times. Today was a very close game. Harden made that huge three with seconds to go. So bottom line, every season we won the championship we had situations like that, and every season we lost it, we had those, too. So it happens. I really don't think it was Xs and Os, what changed the way the course of the players were going. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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