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
I wasn't going to settle. I tried to attack (Duncan). I didn't have a great game but it didn't mean I didn't want to get to the rim.
It wasn't anything. I shot the ball (poorly) tonight. I wasn't shooting the ball well. Ruben tried to front me. Tried to front me and not allow me to get the ball. Reggie was on me. Marcus was on me. They all tried to guard me.
I knew they were not very fast off their feet and that they are very foul-prone - they put you on the line a lot. I knew if I tried to take them off the dribble and attacked early, it would open up for me and my teammates.
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.
We had a lot of characters and maybe they were too much for him in the end.
We had to release all of that frustration. It was rewarding to see each one of us working so hard to get that reward of a win.