It doesn't get any easier. We are going home to play the best team in basketball. That's the beauty of this league, you do it on a nightly basis and we can keep trying to get better.
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For him to bring the amount of energy he did [Sunday] you're counting on a guy who's been in the league 17 years that speaks volumes about the type of person and player he is. He's been tremendous for us. He's given us a great spark.
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As a coach you try to put yourself in their shoes and see what you're doing and how they may counter it, and see if there's anything you can do to be one step ahead without driving your team nuts.
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We just came out with empty possessions and some untimely turnovers in the fourth quarter. That gave them a separation we never caught up to. We gave ourselves a chance, we just couldn't get it done at the end. We put forth maximum effort. They (Spurs) are obviously a championship team.
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We've always had a hard time defending him because he's a skill guy -- not only as a low-post scorer, but he's a good passer and he shoots it very well from 15-17 feet. And with the loss of Aaron Williams and Alonzo Mourning [because of the Vince Carter trade], we thought we needed some size. He helped Detroit, especially against the Lakers in the finals.
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The effort level and energy level was really good. There was no potential letdown coming home off a West Coast trip. If you don't play at a high level, you don't give yourself a chance.
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You have to give Indiana a lot of credit. They are a team that keeps battling without some of their core pieces.
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We've been a little bit up and down through the preseason, so it's good to end on a positive note. At the same time, you don't want to overlook the things you need to work on.
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You have to give New Orleans credit, they doubled Vince and he made the right play to kick it out. We just couldn't get the job done. But in the second half we did a good job of adjusting. When the outside shot isn't going, you have to resort to getting into the paint.
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He obviously was real special. His intent the last 1:32 to get to the rim was huge. Give Milwaukee credit. He got off to a slow start, but it's a 48-minute game. That's the sign of a special, special player.
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It's another win on the road against a high level, quality opponent. Now, we have to come back tomorrow against another high level, quality opponent[Phoenix]. Our guys did a great job of putting themselves in a position to win.
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This is how we play. When we play at a high level it starts on the defensive end. As a result you are able to get some easy baskets.
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We have great trust in Vince's judgment. He wanted to put it on his shoulders and win it. It went in and out. We gave ourselves an opportunity for an offensive rebound. The basketball gods saw it another way.
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The heart and will that this guy has is unbelievable. His defense on Kobe, his assertiveness on offense -- he would not let our team lose tonight. He put us on his back.
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It was obviously far from a perfect game, but we found a way to win, which is the most important thing. As they say, hopefully it's easier to fix a leaky roof in the sunshine.
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I think it's a combination of our guys effort and them playing the second half of a back-to-back which probably caught up with their legs a little bit.
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The big picture is we're trying to get ready for the playoffs. You want to keep guys healthy.
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We haven't had conversations about it over the last couple of weeks because he's been on the active roster.
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I know that Game 5 made a lasting impression on me.
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I think even if the game was in Ecuador, it's important to get a win.
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They're really, really good at home.
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We're just playing at a much different level now, we're much more secure with who we are. We're in a much different state, where we don't exhale. We belong. We're a damn good team.
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I take 100 percent responsibility. For us to defend that way, it's on me. I didn't have our guys prepared. I did a very poor job.
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We want to keep on going further and getting better. We're going to have to get better to go to the places we'd like to be.
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A lot of times when a guy is out who's their best player, it's a proving ground. It's an opportunity for others to show, and that's what they did. We obviously couldn't get enough done.
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You can't really think about it because it just can change daily. The one thing is we're playing a lot of them within the last week or so. We have to just worry about ourselves.
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