Thursday, June 23, 2005
LARRY BROWN
COMING SOON
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CHAUNCEY BILLUPS
Q: Seems like you were never able to get into the flow tonight with the early foul trouble.
Billups: It was a tough game. I though I got a little out of rhythm, being in foul trouble and never getting into the constant flow. It was a good game. I thought both teams fought hard, and that’s what you want in a Game 7. We came up short, but it was a great battle.
Q: What was the big difference tonight?
Billups: I though they got a few breaks. A couple of those fumbles that went out of bounds, they got them back every time. They got some breaks, and those little breaks mean a lot in a series that was so close. But, you have to give them credit. They played good, they had their crowd going behind them.
Q: How hard is it to accept the finality of this?
Billups: It’s tough. It always is. But, somebody has to lose. Unfortunately, it was us this time. But, I’m proud of what we accomplished this season and how hard we fought. I’m real proud of my guys, but we’re disappointed. We feel like we should be celebrating right now.
Q: Do you feel like you overcame a lot this year?
Billups: We definitely overcame a lot. The big brawl at the Palace. Just a lot of things.
Q: Did Bruce Bowen’s defense on you make a difference?
Billups: He did a good job, but it wasn’t really him by himself. They played me with a lot of different guys. They trapped a lot. The biggest thing was getting those two fouls in the first five or six minutes. That just took me out of the flow of the game.
Q: Are you satisfied with your own performance?
Billups: I think I played good. I don’t know if I played my best basketball, but that doesn’t really matter. We didn’t get it done. We’re not going home as the champs.
Q: How will this team bounce back?
Billups: We just have to remember this feeling. Remember how it feels to lose, with somebody celebrating in front of us. We’ll be back here again. I’m sure that we’ll be back here again.
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TAYSHAUN PRINCE
Q: What happened out there late?
Prince: They made some big shots before we did. It was tough for us. We came out great. We were building a lead then quickly let them back in the game.
Q: Was this a different Tim Duncan you faced out there tonight?
Prince: He just made plays. They went into a lot more. When he’s getting stuff done down there it opens up shots for the rest of the team. He made plays tonight. Our big guys got in foul trouble early, which really cost us. Obviously, we wish we could have done some things differently, but there’s nothing we can change about it.
Q: Is it an empty feeling right now?
Prince: More so for the guys who are here now but weren’t here last year – Antonio McDyess, Carlos Arroyo, those guys. I feel bad for them, because those guys worked hard for us to help the team get back to where we were last year. For it to not work out for those guys, I feel bad.
Q: Was it tough knowing this could be Larry Brown’s final game coaching this team?
Prince: I’m pretty sure we’ll have some sort of team meeting when we get back home. Who knows? We played like it was our last game and left it out there, so that’s all we can ask for.
Q: How long will this empty feeling last?
Prince: Obviously for a while. The season’s over. You have a whole summer to think about what you should have and could have done.
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BEN WALLACE
Q. Ben, can you talk about the play of Tim Duncan and how he seemed to will this team to a win in the second half?
BEN WALLACE: He put his team on his shoulders and carried them to a championship. You know, that's what the great players do.
Q. What do you feel like happened to you guys in the fourth quarter?
BEN WALLACE: We didn't make plays down the stretch. We didn't do what we needed to in crucial points of the game. They got shots, they needed shots and made plays they needed. We didn't do those things.
Q. How does it feel knowing that you were tied 57 57 and the Championship was that close and that you're not able to go home with it?
BEN WALLACE: You know, we let one slip away, everybody feels like we let one slip away.
But you've got to tip your hat to the Spurs, they came out and showed a lot of guts and gave it a lot of heart and when they needed to make plays, they did. They went out and earned it.
Q. How tough was it to watch another team celebrate the Championship that you guys have held for a year?
BEN WALLACE: It's tough, it's tough any time you come this close to winning the Championship and have it slip through your fingers, it's going to be tough. You know this team, the rest of these guys, everybody came out and played hard and gave it their all and that's all we can ask.
Q. Any thoughts about next year maybe without Larry Brown on the bench?
BEN WALLACE: No. We said going in, you know, we get back to Detroit and wrap this thing up. Hopefully everybody will have a good summer and enjoy the summer with their family and whatever. So, you know, that's not something we want to think about right now. We just take care of our bodies and see everybody come back and ready to play next year.
Q. Looking forward to the next few weeks, how long do you think this loss is going to stay with you?
BEN WALLACE: You know, it's not something that everybody's hurt, everybody's a little bit disappointed but everybody will bounce back. I don't think anybody will let this hold them down. We'll bounce back and come back.
Q. Can you take pride in the fact that this in the end was a series that everyone will remember, one of the better series we've seen in a long time? Does that matter to you at all?
BEN WALLACE: No, not really. You know, I think that all the only thing that matters right now is that we get back and we get over this as soon as possible, get back to working out and get ready for next year, everybody is playing hard and hopefully everybody will come back next year with the same intensity and effort and try to make a run at it again.
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RICHARD HAMILTON
Q. Rip, could you talk about just the adjustments San Antonio made when they put Tony Parker on you defensively, particularly in the fourth quarter?
RICHARD HAMILTON: I mean, the one thing that we want to do, we just want to continue to run our offense. We don't want to worry about mismatches and things like that. We want to really try to take our time and come down and execute our offense, you know, get Sheed back in the game, try to get Sheed some touches and things like that. That's it.
Q. How different was it for you having Tony Parker defending as opposed to Bruce who you two had been going at it back and forth throughout the series?
RICHARD HAMILTON: It was different because Tony is not going to grab and hold as much as Bruce does. He's pretty much going to try to use his speed and chase me around screens and things like that.
Q. What were the specific things that went wrong for you guys in the fourth quarter?
RICHARD HAMILTON: Like I said, it's tough. You've got to give a lot of credit to the Spurs, they did a great job tonight. They had to make plays in the fourth quarter, they hit a couple big three point shots and things like that, so you've got to give a lot of credit for them.
Q. How did it feel for you knowing that you were maybe 12 minutes away from defending your championship and you were not able to get that?
RICHARD HAMILTON: It's tough. You know, like I said, it's tough. You've got to take the good with the bad. We came here to give ourselves an opportunity and we did that by winning the last game and going into the fourth quarter up by a point, we gave ourselves another opportunity, but we just came up short.
Q. Looking forward to the next few weeks, how long do you think this is going to stay with you?
RICHARD HAMILTON: Who knows? Like I said, we played basketball until the last possible day that anybody could play basketball.
So probably right now you just want to get away, get away from everything, rest your body, take time off and get ready for next year.
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