Defense and rebounding win championships and those two things are hard work. I have it written on the board up there that offense sells tickets, but defense wins championships.

Owen is a hard worker and a very good athlete. The hard work part is rare because not many guys his age have a very good work ethic. They rely mostly on talent. He wants to improve.

He sets the standard of hard work, that hard-hat mentality the Spurs have, with his defense. He never gets the headlines or stories because he doesn't score a lot of points, but the Spurs would suffer without him.

Defense turns into points and that is what we kept stressing. They didn't stand and watch. They went after the ball and made some things happen.

We went to work. Hard work.

It's a result of the hard work of the team from top to bottom. They are working well as a team and are putting everything together that they have learned in practice. Everyone is working hard and the results are showing.