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But that humor evanesced when a local reporter asked him if he thought the Hornets would continue to dare the Spurs to shoot 3-pointers.

POP: “I don’t know. You’ll have to ask them.”

SEMI-CLUELESS MEDIA PERSON: “That’s kind of what they did in the first game.”

POP: “They did a lot of things well.”

NEW ORLEANS RADIO GUY: “Will you try to change up your defenses on David West at all tonight?”

POP: “Right. We’re going to probably do four or five things you’ve never seen before in basketball.”

NEW ORLEANS RADIO GUY: “I sense sarcasm.”

POP: “That’s correct. We’re going to spend the afternoon inventing the light bulb. Those CFLs (compact fluorescent lamps), a lot of people are having problems with them, so we’re going to think of something different.”

SEMI-CLUELESS MEDIA PERSON: “Do you have any words for Hugo, the mascot, by any chance?”

POP: “Who?” (media laughter)

(Someone chimes in, “the guy who jumped through the fire.”)

POP: “Why would you ask me that?”

The media is laughing now, but I sense Popovich doesn’t think this is all that  funny.

TRYING-TO-BE HELPFUL LOCAL MEDIA PERSON: “Talking about the ring of fire.”

POP: “Hopefully that’s over with. We all know it wasn’t a great move. We all make mistakes.”

SAME GUY WHO ASKED ABOUT DEFENDING DAVID WEST: “Do you think you might try to use (Bruce) Bowen on David a little bit tonight?”

Ohmigod. This is going to set him off…

POP: “That’s a good idea! Look at this guy right here! He’s got all kinds of ideas! Let’s do that! What’s he gonna do, get 30? Maybe we’ll put Bruce on him. Bruce weighs, what 90 pounds? He’ll just knock the (bleep) out of him. That’ enough. You guys are terrible…”

End of interview.