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All-Star Pau Gasol and reserve Luke Walton sat out Tuesday’s practice witih respective minor injuries.
Lakers spokesman John Black said that Walton was experiencing minor back pain, while Gasol had a slight hamstring strain.
Both players are listed as day-to-day.
Seeing Sasha Vujacic shoot the basketball after Lakers practice has concluded is like seeing Lady Gaga in a ridiculous outfit … It’s all but a guarantee.
It was no different on Saturday afternoon at L.A.’s facility, as the Slovenian ran through a series of shooting drills with assistant coach/advance scout Rasheed Hazzard. Afterwards, Vujacic told us about his health, his shot and Ron Artest:
On how he’s feeling: I feel good, I feel excited. It’s been four days now, and I think everyone’s a little bit tired, but we’re pushing through it and working really hard heading into our first game on Wednesday. Last year I missed the whole training camp after injuring myself on the first day, but heading into this year I had been doing a lot of rehab and everything looks good right now.
On his shooting It will be better on October 27, but right now it’s OK. Obviously last year I didn’t shoot the ball the way I was supposed to or the way I can, but this year I’m not even thinking about that. I know what I can do and how to do it, so I’m just going to take the right shots and it will work out.
On playing some point guard in practice: I think Phil (Jackson) has been training me throughout my years here to play both guard positions, and I’m lucky to be able to do it. I’ve learned a lot, and each year become more mature. Last season and this summer helped me from that point of view, and having Kobe (Bryant) on my side, calming me down sometimes, is good for me. I like both positions, and wherever Phil needs me, that’s where I’ll play.
On if anyone has stood out to him in practice: I think everyone came into camp prepared. It’s no secret that Ron (Artest) is a new player to us, and he’s just a very, very strong man. That’s the way he plays. I think he fits in pretty well with us - his toughness and his defensive skills are incredible and that’s something we needed, something that will benefit us throughout the season and into the playoffs. He (guarded me today) and he’s like a train coming at you. That’s good though, I like it.
What if Courtney Lee’s layup as regulation time expired in Game 2 went in?
What if one of Dwight Howard’s two free throws, or both, went in with 11.1 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter of Game 4?
A quick response in Orlando on Friday and Saturday has generally looked like this: “The Magic would be up 3-1 in the NBA Finals.”
But what if Rashard Lewis had been whistled for a foul while hitting Kobe Bryant’s wrist with 1.8 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter before Hedo Turkoglu blocked the shot from behind and recovered to set up the alley-oop to Lee?
Who knows?
What if the Lakers hadn’t been whistled for 11 fouls to just two on Orlando in Thursday’s fourth quarter, putting the Magic at the line 17 times as the Lakers shot not a single free throw?
Not sure.
Here’s how the Orange County Register’s Kevin Ding put it:
If Lee had made that layup and Orlando had won Game 2 to even the series, the teams then have totally different mindsets and plans heading into Game 3. Maybe the angrier Lakers win Game 3. Maybe they then lose Game 4. Who knows? It’s ludicrous to draw supposition about Game 4 in any way if you’re going to change the outcome of Game 2.
The “What If” game is fun to talk about, but isn’t necessarily an accurate assessment of the contest. In other words, each play made in a basketball game directly affects the next play. If Derek Fisher hits all five of his first threes, does he have to nail his final two? If Rashard Lewis doesn’t go 0-for-3 and Rafer Alston 1-for-5 in the third quarter of Game 4, maybe the Lakers don’t get back into the game … Or maybe they do?
Countless plausible “What If” scenarios could have affected any of the four contests, but each would have promptly altered the respective team’s outlook immediately.
The point is, it’s just not that simple.
Lakers forward Adam Morrison hasn’t played a single minute in the 2009 postseason, yet he, just like his other 13 teammates, is one win away from an NBA championship.
After coming to the Lakers in a midseason trade from Charlotte along with Shannon Brown for Vladimir Radmanovic, Morrison’s done his best to both strengthen his knee and improve his overall game, and said he’s understood and even appreciated his place on the bench despite never sitting on the sidelines in his basketball career. A talented scorer and a No. 3 overall draft pick, Morrison knows in his mind that he has what it takes to contribute to a winning team, but that this season just hasn’t been his time.
Before we got kicked off the floor prior to L.A.’s Saturday afternoon practice, Morrison sat down with us to talk about what it’s like sitting in his shoes.
Here’s a smattering of some of the more interesting quotes out of Wednesday’s NBA Finals practice from several of the Lakers:
Lakers Guard Kobe Bryant:
Q. What’s the challenge of finding a balance offensively, if you don’t shoot enough, you’re not being aggressive enough; if you shoot too much then you’re trying to do too much on your own? And how difficult is that?
KOBE BRYANT: You know what, I really don’t pay attention to it. I mean, my responsibility on this team, I have to do a little bit more, I’ve got to score and facilitate. So I have a lot more responsibilities, so I can’t just go off. I’ve got to get my guys involved sometimes. Sometimes you’re sacrificing your rhythm to try to rebuild it. Last night I couldn’t regenerate it.
Q. How do you know or when do you know when you’re going through a cold streak and you need to stop or when you need to keep shooting your way through it?
KOBE BRYANT: You know, if everybody is not in rhythm, if I feel like my guys are struggling that night, then I’ll shoot through it. Guys get things going, then I’ll keep going to them and try to find my way through it that way.
Q. What in your experience is the importance of winning on the road? How difficult is it to win on the road in the playoffs, and the importance of home court after such a long season, how much does that bear on The Finals?
KOBE BRYANT: I don’t think it’s too difficult to win on the road, to be honest with you. You have the team that executes very well, I don’t think the road is a factor. Home court to me from my perspective is not that big a deal.
Q. Are you aware of how well you have played coming off a loss with one day in between games? You guys are undefeated, and you have played particularly well in those games. Is that a conscious thing on your part, and what is your reaction to some speculation that you may have hit a wall last night, that you’re tired?
KOBE BRYANT: I mean, I’m aware of bouncing back after a tough loss. Hopefully we can do it again.
As far as me hitting the wall, so what if I did? I didn’t, but so what if I did?
Q. What does it mean if you did?
KOBE BRYANT: It means nothing.
Q. Because?
KOBE BRYANT: Because I’ll run straight through it.
Lakers Coach Phil Jackson:
Q. At the end of the Game 2 you had said there were some stretches where Kobe had tried to do a little too much. What did you feel about yesterday? Were there some of those stretches at the same time?
PHIL JACKSON: I think he read the defense all right. The last play, obviously a turnover, we’re not happy about that, and the second to the last play where he tried to cross over and they closed the gap on him. That happened once before. They’re trying to do that. But I think he’s reading the defense and he knows what’s coming ahead of him. He’s not going into it blind or a situation where he is just being strong minded. I think that’s important, that he stays flexible in those situations and sees the options.
Q. The fact that the Magic set a pair of records last night and you guys were still in the game until the final seconds, is that encouraging? And with Dwight Howard in the middle and all the three point shooters, do they represent one of the most extreme versions of the inside outside game that you’ve come up against?
PHIL JACKSON: That last question, yes, I think so. They’re probably the most threatening at that. But San Antonio has been doing that for years. Houston was doing it in the ’90s, that Hakeem Olajuwon team that they had that splayed the three point shooters around, an inside game with like one guy and Robert Horry sitting on the side in his rookie, sophomore season as a player. This has been around, and this threatening three point line has been a real factor for some time in the playoffs in many ways. The first question, ask me that again.
Q. They set a couple records, off the charts, and you guys were there anyway.
PHIL JACKSON: Well, that’s part of it. We said to ourselves, just give yourself a chance to win this game because we know the energy is going to be high, the crowd is going to be encouraged, and obviously it’s going to make a difference in their bench play. The players have had struggles up to this point. We feel like we’ve played well enough to win. We’re not disappointed in how we played, but we are disappointed in the loss.
Continue reading ‘Wednesday’s Quote Highlights’
We pulled some of the more interesting quotes from Saturday’s media sessions for the Lakers and Magic, with Game 2 approximately 24 hours away.
Here are highlights of what Phil Jackson, Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, Stan Van Gundy, and Hedo Turkoglu had to say:
Lakers Head Coach Phil Jackson
Q. Have you been able to track why this team has played to well really since the fourth quarter of Game 5 against Denver? It seemed like the team started to turn around right then.
JACKSON: Yeah, I don’t want to put too much emphasis on past efforts. The last successful act you do, that’s kind of a statement we use or a motto we use. You have to regenerate that all the time. They have a good feel right now, and hopefully they can sustain that tomorrow.
Q. Can you talk about Andrew’s whole postseason that he’s gone through and the way he responded in Game 1, and kind of gave the team a lift to start off the game and what you expect from the rest of the series?
JACKSON: Andrew has had a year that’s been a repeat almost of last season, you know, started to play really well in the month of December, got himself a 40 point game in January, then had the accident again almost at the same time, an incident that created a possible loss of season. This year he’s more fortunate and he was able to come back off of his injury. Playing a handful of games at the end of the season I think was a benefit for him. You know, he didn’t fully get to rehab his knee, but he got as close as we can possibly get before he started playing. So that’s one of the things that we’re really concerned, that he fully rehabs after the season is over and he’s 100 percent. But he’s come back and played with a brace which has some limitation … He gave us a lift in the first quarter of the game the other day, and that’s what we want, that early inside presence out there in the ballgame, and the combination of Pau and Drew out there gave us that impact. Pau has been very good at looking for Andrew, feeding Andrew, getting the ball into him when he has an open spot and an opportunity, and I think that’s helped Andrew’s game a lot. He’s very animated, intensely focused, I think, on this match up between himself and Howard, almost too much so, to the point where he still has to help, he still has to stop penetration. But he really has it in his mind that he’s going to stay attached to him, keep his body off the rim or away from the rebounds.
Q. I wonder if you could compare the importance of limiting Dwight Howard’s offense versus limiting Hedo Turkoglu’s offense, which carries more importance?
JACKSON: When you figure out the leaders of this team without Nelson on the floor, you have to figure out that Turkoglu is the leader by his amount of assists that he has, the ability to create shots for a lot of his teammates by his penetration off the ball, with the ball, off screens. You know, his value to the team at the end of the game in critical situations. So we have great respect for that aspect. However, Howard is always that threat inside, which that’s a 60 percent conversion. He gets the ball inside, he’s going to shoot 60 percent. If he’s close enough, he can finish. He leads the league in dunks. Those things are devastating to defense because a lot of times it all ends up with a three point play attached to it, what we call the old fashioned way. So really you’ve got the best of both worlds in the first game, he was 1 for 6 and the three point shooters were limited to a few baskets. So we know that’s going to change, and we want to make sure that we stay with our emphasis to stop penetration, and that’s the big thing, stop interior passes if we can, stop penetration off the dribble because that’s going to erupt to three point shooting opportunities.
Q. How much does your size on Hedo impact him? Stan pointed to that yesterday as a big difference from what he faced in the last two rounds?
JACKSON: Well, West, the defender from Cleveland, he’s a 6′2″ defender, 6′3″ at most. Trevor is angular, tall, wing span. Then we have big guys coming to help with that size and length. It’s been noted this year that the size that we play with has some effect on teams as far as penetration and passing and dribbling and then making the passes. So we’ve tried to accentuate that.
Lakers Guard Kobe Bryant
Q. Sometimes a team and an individual can be in that proverbial zone, where they can do almost no wrong. Are you and your teammates in that zone right now?
BRYANT: I don’t know, I hope so. We’ve been playing pretty well. We’ve just got to stay focused, try to keep it going.
Q. In your mind what is the biggest misconception about yourself?
BRYANT: The way I am on the court is the way I am off the court. I’m completely different at home and outside of the Staples Center and here. I think my USA Olympic teammates were up for a pretty big shock, too, this summer. I’d probably say that.
Q. Not to imply that you’re anywhere near done, but how much longer do you want to play?
BRYANT: I don’t know. I mean, I just love the game so much still. I just feel like there’s still so much out there for me to improve on and work on. My body feels great. God willing, I stay healthy, I’ll just keep going.
Q. Has your game gotten better or started to deteriorate at all?
BRYANT: No, I feel like I’m a much better player right now than I was last year. I just feel like I’ve improved a lot. I think there was areas of my game that I needed to work on, and I worked on those, and I think I’m better because of it.
Continue reading ‘Saturday Finals Quote Montage’
Somewhere in L.A.’s Western Conference Semi-Final series against the Houston Rockets, two things happened to Andrew Bynum, one physical and one mental: He started to get closer to his pre-injury conditioning level just as a strategic light bulb flipped on in his head.
The 21-year-old center realized that if he committed fully to protecting the rim, rebounding and getting up and down the floor in defensive transition, the Lakers would be very hard to beat. Makes sense, right? His offense would come naturally, but couldn’t be his focus.
“I think after the Houston series everyone really realized, ‘Look this is what it is, what we need to do,’” he said after Friday’s practice. “We’re going to have to play defense. Everybody’s going to have to sacrifice offense, it will take care of itself, especially with us. We have a deep team and everybody (can) score, it’s going to come down to how many people we stop, how many stops we can get in a row.”
That mindset led to a generally productive - and underrated - series against Denver that doesn’t show up in the numbers, and culminated in the young center’s nine-point, nine-rebound performance in 22:23 of NBA Finals playing time that essentially canceled out Dwight Howard’s 12 points and 15 boards in 35 minutes.
“You have to limit his easy stuff,” said Bynum, who did exactly that as Howard mustered just one field goal on six attempts. “Make him make shots over the top of the defense, make him have to earn all of his buckets.”
Surely the Lakers would take a draw between Howard, the Defensive Player of the Year and All-NBA First Team member, and Bynum.
But rewind back a few weeks ago when Bynum struggled with unconventional matchups (Utah’s Paul Millsap, Houston’s Chuck Hayes or Carl Landry) while trying to come back from his knee injury that limited his minutes and made finding a rhythm seem more difficult than keeping his 7-foot head from hitting a door ledge. There was something besides time and increased conditioning that helped Bynum get his mind right: Watching film.
Earlier this week, Bynum told the Orange County Register’s Kevin Ding how he was planning on defending Howard (a sample: “You’ve got to keep him as far away from the basket as possible”), because he’d already started watching tape with his teammates and coaches, including Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. As such, Bynum felt pretty comfortable with what Howard was going to do in Game 1.
“It’s definitely rewarding when that happens, and (watching film) is all part of it,” he said. “That’s something the coaching staff came to empower myself about. Cap (Abdul-Jabbar) watched film with us, came and told us, ‘Look, this is what you’re going to have to do against this guy.’”
Bynum could see what Howard wanted to do on one hand, and on the other, observe how much better the Lakers were against the Nuggets and Rockets (games five and seven specifically) when he was most active defensively. The proof was right there in front of him. True to form, his defensive focus (not to mention his eight first quarter points) certainly worked against the Magic in Game 1 of the Finals, leaving Orlando searching for a way to deal not just with the length of Bynum in the paint, but of Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom, who collectively give L.A. three long and skilled post players that Orlando simply didn’t have to face in the Eastern Conference playoffs.
“I think the matchups are for us a little bit more, having L.O. out there and Pau out there,” Bynum continued. “The same advantage that they had, I think they just lost it. They had that ridiculous advantage against Cleveland where Delonte West was playing (Hedo) Turkoglu and somebody else small was playing Rashard Lewis. So now it’s a little bit different. And we’re really running them off the three-point line, that’s a big difference too. They’re swinging it around searching for that three that they were getting wide open. I think we have to just keep doing that.”
Bynum gets it.
He understands what he needs to do, what L.A. needs to do. And that’s certainly not good news for the Magic.
To watch Bynum, Derek Fisher, Lamar Odom, Trevor Ariza and advance scout Rasheed Hazzard’s post-practice video, CLICK HERE.
With that in mind, we kept the video camera rolling to capture some of the action with just over 24 hours until Game 1 tips off in Los Angeles.
Amidst the media horde at STAPLES Center for the first day of full availability, we spent some time with various Lakers and Magic players, plus Lakers Coach Phil Jackson, to offer a summary of the event.
First, Kobe Bryant (2:49) and Jackson (2:33) spoke from the podium (CLICK HERE): The nine-time coaching champ addressed how his team looked in practice this week, talked about the meaning of Orlando’s regular season wins over L.A., the motivation caused by losing last year’s NBA Finals and more. Bryant, meanwhile, expressed a state of calm focus, referred to the determination felt by his team and talked about what it would mean to deliver Jackson’s 10th ring.
Afterwards, we sat down individually with Josh Powell, Jordan Farmar and Luke Walton, videos that can be seen by CLICKING HERE. Powell, protected by a ball rack, talked mostly about hip hop music; Farmar talked about returning to the Finals and being great at video games; while Walton let everyone know that his phone will be off throughout the Finals.
Finally, we heard from three Orlando players - Hedo Turkoglu, Jameer Nelson and Anthony Johnson - to sum up the visitors’ perspective, which can be viewed HERE. Nelson remains questionable (shoulder), but did explain that if he does play, it will be in limited capacity. He was looked to as a scorer in the regular season before hurting his shoulder on Feb. 2, keyed by a terrific shooting rhythm that he said simply isn’t back yet. As such, if he plays, Nelson will serve as more of a facilitator off the bench.
For more on the Finals, head to our Playoff Central page or check out the complete Lakers - Magic preview.
Phil Jackson addressed assembled media following L.A.’s Wednesday morning practice:
Q. How can you just whether this team is ready, what kind of feeling will you have?
PHIL JACKSON: Boy, that’s not the easiest question to answer because we’ve got two really good days of practice. Today wasn’t as sharp or as crisp, and that’s what you’re looking for as a coach is that everybody is focused, they’re reacting well, shooting well in a sense.
Q. Pau, he talked yesterday about how he really hit the weight room this season and he’s stronger and he doesn’t have to take anti inflammatories. How much healthier is he now than he was a year ago?
PHIL JACKSON: Yeah, I just think that he’s never been one that’s been dedicated to the weight room type. We understand that. But knowing what happened last year and felt we just didn’t have the muscle to get in there and wrestle with Boston in the situation that we were in, that he really had to get in the weight room, and it would help his rebounding, and it certainly has.
Q. What does it mean that you lost two games to those guys? Does it mean anything going into The Finals?
PHIL JACKSON: It means we have a great deal of respect for them as far as a team. They played very well down the stretch in both the games to win the two games they played against us. Obviously those are mitigating circumstances; we had different people in the lineup, they had different people in the lineup. It was four months ago, but it certainly gives us a great deal of respect for them.
Q. Can you talk about just what it means to be back here. And then also the role that you had to take, taking a team from a lottery to being a championship contender over the last five years or so?
PHIL JACKSON: Well, I came back at the behest of the Buss family really to coach this team back into playoff contention. We obviously got back into the playoffs even though we got back to .500 and struggled in the playoffs both against Phoenix first two years and then we subsequently have gotten to a position where we feel like we’re as strong as any team in the league. Every night we give ourselves a chance to win, and have during the regular season. So that’s been really the blessing of coming back and having this opportunity again to see this team rise through kind of a feeling situation, come out from the ashes and become again a dominant team in the league.
Q. What keeps you going? I know you’ve been dealing with a lot of health issues and other things throughout the year. How much longer do you see yourself being able to do this?
PHIL JACKSON: With the training staff we have and the equipment manager, it’s about as easy a life as I can live. He carries my luggage, and the therapists, they keep me going every day. I’m in good shape.
Q. In terms of motivation?
PHIL JACKSON: It’s really about the momentum of a season. You know, you get caught up in this day to day life that we have where your schedule is pretty much determined from October until summer. You know, you get onto it, and there’s something about it that you learn over a behavior period, I think, of years. I think it’s going to be hard to get away from it, personally. I know I’ve done it twice, and I know one year, the asterisk season, and they didn’t start playing until February, and the other year I went to the South Pacific and got away from the basketball game simply by dissolving the presence of NBA ball.
But yeah, it’s something that’s been in my life for 40 years.
Q. When you talked about health and rings yesterday, we never got around to asking you, what happens if you win this thing? Will that enter into your decision about coming back?
PHIL JACKSON: I hope it does. It’s certainly an event that would be a culmination of an effort.
Q. So that means a large part of it, if you finally win that tenth ring?
PHIL JACKSON: I guess I really haven’t thought about it in that depth. I’ve kind of left that off to assessment at the end of the year.
Continue reading ‘Phil Jackson Press Conference’
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