NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: LAKERS VS. NUGGETS

September 17, 2020

Frank Vogel

Los Angeles Lakers

Practice Day

Q. Wanted to ask you about the implementation of everything, how that went in practice, what you saw from the guys on Wednesday, the final full session, what you utilized today for?

FRANK VOGEL: Yeah, yesterday we wanted to just get up and down a little bit, get some live work in to try to stay in rhythm the best we can. There was some element of preparation as well yesterday. Today was more about drill work preparation, scripting our offenses, focusing on what the offensive side of the ball was going to look like today.

Q. I know you don't like to get too far into specific game plans. Can you talk a little bit about Jokic and Murray, the screen roll defensively, if there's an area that you can attack?

FRANK VOGEL: You said defensively?

Q. When they're playing defense.

FRANK VOGEL: When they're playing D? They're their two top guns offensively. In any series, any matchup, you're going to want to make the other team's best players work on the defensive end. It's not really any different with this series with those two guys.

Q. You were talking about LeBron and A.D., a lot of their relationship happens away from the team. What have you seen about the back and forth between your two stars that has left an impression on you?

FRANK VOGEL: Well, they have great chemistry on the court and great chemistry off the court. They really enjoy each other's company. I think they both understand how each other can help, how they can help each other. They respect that element of the relationship.

Obviously on the court both of them are extremely explosive scorers that make the right play. So it works.

Q. This may not be the easiest thing to answer because you can't compare to the hypothetical. Are there any ways you feel like being together every day through this process has helped your team, your run so far?

FRANK VOGEL: Yeah, I think the element of the fact that when we leave the practice court we're still together for dinners and all those types of things. Obviously that just builds off-the-court chemistry. There are also opportunities to further the conversation of what's happening with your team in practice or preparing for an opponent, those types of things.

If there's anything I would say it's that, just the ability to further those conversations.

Q. Jokic is obviously an unusually good passer for his position. I wanted to ask about those specific challenges of defending that position for your team with that particular skill set.

FRANK VOGEL: Five-man assignment. Obviously he is one of the best passers I've ever seen. You have to be really strong on the basketball, whether you're sagging off of him, trying to prevent some of those cuts, or pressuring, it starts there.

All four other guys on the court got to be on high alert because they know as soon as they turn their head, their man can be beating them for a back cut, for a layup. Definitely is one of the strongest elements of their team, one of the things that we have to be great at if we're going to expect to slow them down.

Q. Obviously there were a lot of downsides to Rondo missing so much time. Do you think in a way it may have benefited him in terms of being able to sit back, watch, gain a deeper understanding?

FRANK VOGEL: I think he made the best of that time. But the way his mind works, he would have a deeper understanding, so to speak, whether he was in uniform playing these games all the way through or being away from it and being in the staff meetings the way he was. He just has that kind of mind that sees the game differently than most. It's unique and special.

I don't know if it would have been that much different had he been playing all along.

Q. The fact that A.D. and a couple of these other younger guys, Alex Caruso, Kyle Kuzma, guys that have never been to the Western Conference Finals, KCP, are there different conversations you have with them? Does anything change? Or it's pretty much primarily going to be the same, doesn't matter what round?

FRANK VOGEL: Yeah, I mean, you do talk about, Hey, down to four teams here. Our focus has to be heightened. Attention to detail has to be heightened. All those types of things.

At the end of the day most of the conversations are really about what we have to do to win the next game and prepare for the Denver Nuggets. Less talk about sort of the big picture of where we're at. Really just trying to stay focused on the task at hand.