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.
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.
It was frustrating. We were turning the ball over without making them work for it. It was really an intense game for a while, and we had a very good chance to be right there. We lost it for a few minutes, and we paid for it.
They started doubling and we kind of stopped running plays for the post-ups. We kind of got lost a little bit. Especially in the second quarter, we got out of our game for a few minutes and that really cost us.
The last couple of years we thought we had a better chance going against San Antonio and going against Phoenix because we were 3-1 against them (in the regular season). We lost to both teams 4-0. The playoffs are different.
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.
The thing we wanted to do is jump on them quick. When a team is not having a good year, when you jump on them early and hit them first it's hard for them to get back up.
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.
There's nothing on the court he hasn't seen. He's got an answer for everything.
We're a good defensive team. We've just got to stop them earlier. We've got to figure out a way to get them out of their rhythm and their plays. We've got to make them take tough shots and force turnovers. I'm really excited about Game 3 being a different story.
We are trying hard to bounce out of this funk. That's the only way we are going to do it. We have to win one or two games, loosen up, and play with confidence.