Pau Gasol
Pau Gasol
Pau Gasol Sáezis a Spanish professional basketball player for the San Antonio Spurs of the National Basketball Association. He is a six-time NBA All-Star, and a four-time All-NBA selection, twice on the second team and twice on the third team. He has won two NBA championships, both with the Los Angeles Lakers. He was the NBA Rookie of the Year in 2002 with the Memphis Grizzlies, one of only two non-American NBA players to win that award. He is the...
NationalitySpanish
ProfessionBasketball Player
Date of Birth6 July 1980
CityBarcelona, Spain
CountrySpain
We have this five game (home) stretch here, and we've already lost two, and we just cannot afford to lose anymore. I will do whatever it takes and trying to play with a little more confidence than I did before these two games and be more aggressive.
I've got to be a little more aggressive, bring it from the beginning. We can't afford to have a first half like we did the first game.
We have to come out hard in Game 3, really establish ourselves at home and get a win there. The whole scenario changes then, but we've got to do it. We've got to make it happen. I'm really excited about that, going back home with our fans and getting this monkey, that is really getting heavy, off of our back.
We believe in ourselves. We believe that winning the third game changes the whole thing. We're so anxious to win that first game, and everybody keeps reminding you of the record that it's hard to get rid of. But I don't think it's much of what (Dallas) did. It's more about what we didn't do well enough to hang in there and have a chance to win.
I'm not a person or a selfish player, but we have to move the ball more, and we have to look further the team game, because we have enough talent to use different players.
In-N-Out is incredible, but don't tell coach I've been going there. He would flip out and put some curse on me.
We need to show everyone that we're a team people should respect and be afraid of.
We just got out of the game for a few minutes and that really cost us. It was frustrating the way we were turning the ball over and giving it back to them without making them work.
We weren't ready. We didn't come out ready to compete at their level. It was frustrating because we weren't clicking from the start.
We turned the ball over down the stretch and they came down and took the lead there. It was a little bit of everything, execution was definitely a factor. We need to execute in the fourth quarter.
Nobody here is thinking about the past and losing again. Everybody is very positive. We've got to stick together here to be more successful in Game Two and get rid of that so people will stop talking about it and bringing it up.
Navarro had a difficult start to the game, but he slowly recovered and scored 35 points. But I have to say, Croatia were a great team and you have to feel for them because they lost their cool at the end. It was down to frustration.
Obviously, I didn't think I traveled. I watched the play again in here, and I only took two steps, but those things happen.
It doesn't matter what I think. It was a good lesson for ourselves -- for what we'll have to fight against the favored team. It showed us reality. It showed us that we'll only get what we give ourselves. It was good because we know we have to play a notch higher.