The San Antonio Spurs square off against the Memphis Grizzlies in a little less than 20 minutes. The Spurs will fight to stay alive tonight and push for a game six in Memphis on Friday.
Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich spoke with the media before the game and gave major credit to the Grizzlies defense for obtaining the 3-1 series lead.
When Popovich was asked how he kept his composure during the Grizzlies onslaught in game four he simply responded, “age.”
He joked by saying the 21-year old version of himself would have thrown chairs and broken things after the game four loss. Today he said, “Age keeps one from overreacting.”
Grizzlies coach Lionel Hollins was on a Portland team as a player that came back down 0-2 in the first round on the verge of elimination and said, “The feeling is scary.” Hollins continued, “You have to keep it in your mind that you have to go out and win that game.”
When asked how the Grizzlies could only end up with the eighth seed, Hollins responded, “(There are) a lot of good teams in the west. Everybody was playing their best.”
In the opposing locker room I spoke with Grizzlies forward Leon Powe who talked about what it will take for his team to close out the series tonight.
“We just wanna go in here and just stay focused on the task at hand. Just try to play hard and execute and get all our defensive assignments right. That’s it.”
Game five will tip off at 7:30pm (CT) in San Antonio at the AT&T Center. The game will be televised on NBATV and FSN Southwest.
Follow me on twitter Spurs fans as I’ll be live tweeting commentary during the game and have all of your post game quotes after the game.
Pre-game Observations
- Richard Jefferson was the first Spur out shooting early two and half hours before the game begins.
- In the Spurs locker room, Manu Ginobili was stretching and watching game film. Gary Neal sat quietly with a very determined demeanor on his face.
- In the Grizzlies locker room, several Grizzlies players were going through game film without any coaches. Tony Allen sat listening to music and quietly rapping lyrics to himself.
