Spurs Game 1 postgame QUOTES

Spurs Head Coach Gregg Popovich

On the game: “We let the Hornets get away from us in the third quarter. They outplayed us in the second half and out hustled us; they played harder. They deserved to win the ballgame. With that hustle and decision making they kicked our butts.”

On the Hornets defense: “They did a good job on Tim Duncan. You have to give the New Orleans defense a lot of credit.”

On David West: “You don’t have to say much other than David West is an all-star and he showed it again tonight why he is.”

On Chris Paul: “There are a lot of things that impresses one about Chris Paul. I describe him that he runs an organized playground. Byron is going to call plays for a lot of guys, but a good portion of the time Chris takes control and he makes a decision. He has an uncanny ability for spatial awareness and an ability to know where his teammates are and how to get the ball to them, while at the same time score. His decision-making is tremendous and when you have the individual skill to go with it, it makes him impossible.”

Spurs center Tim Duncan

On the game: “We’ll make adjustments and change the defense a little bit and see what happens next game. It was a high energy game all along. I think it got away from us a little bit, where they made shots and we didn’t. That’s all it came down to. Then they put a run together and we couldn’t answer… They kept it on us. Shots became really important and [we] missed shots and they’re playing with a little bit of energy. That ball comes off and they’re pushing it right back down our throat. It just compounded at the wrong time and a lot of credit to them, they did a great job.”

On the burning ring of fire: “That was amazing. That was an amazing thirty minutes.”

Spurs guard Manu Ginobili

On the game: “They had a great second half. When they didn’t score, they got defensive boards. We helped them out, too. We helped them with turnovers and so many things that didn’t go right for us. When we moved the ball the right way, we couldn’t make a shot.”

Spurs Robert forward Robert Horry

On David West: “He had it going tonight. Sometimes you got it going and some nights you don’t. Tonight, he had it going. Our guys were playing good D on him, [he was] getting a lot of good shots. He just had an exceptional game.”

Spurs guard Tony Parker

On the game: “We knew we were not going to shot like that for the whole game. So we had to keep them close with defense, but we didn’t. They played better and tougher than us. That was the difference. Not too many changes. I think we just didn’t execute well in the second half.”