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 see happy people on this team, who are excited to come to work and be a part of this team, working together to get somewhere. I don't see selfish guys, who are worrying about themselves and their situations. We have guys happy to share and doing whatever it takes to win. That is what we've lacked in previous years.
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.
We wanted to jump on them quick because when you get hit first it's hard to jump back up. It'll be great if we're able to keep this up and go into the playoffs with this confidence we're playing with.
This was a good lesson for us. It lets us find out what's in store for us in the playoffs. Perhaps we have to step it up one notch.
Most of the guys were watching the NCAA Tournament (with Connecticut losing to George Mason). It was weird for a while. We didn't know what would happen.
That was the play we wanted to run. I took it hard to the rim and I knew I had enough time to make a move.
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.
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 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.
We came out in the second and played hard. We want to be in that playoff race and this game was crucial.
We didn't seem to feel comfortable. That was the feeling I had during the whole game. We couldn't get to our offense. We couldn't get to what we wanted out of the plays we ran. It really wasn't a consistent offense on our part. We were very sloppy.