NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: LAKERS VS. NUGGETS

September 23, 2020

Frank Vogel

Los Angeles Lakers

Practice Day

Q. I wanted to ask about LeBron's free throws. He shot 10 free throws three times in that series against the Rockets and he's only shot 10 so far in this series. What does that tell you, and is that something that you have spoken to him about?

FRANK VOGEL: We're dealing with the fouls through the proper channels with the league. I think he's gone to the basket very aggressively, and I'll just leave it at that.

Q. Just wondered looking back through the tape what stood out the most to you, especially from the first three quarters, if you kind of remove the fourth? What stood out the most?

FRANK VOGEL: We didn't play our best game. That's for sure. We weren't as sharp as we should have been, could have been, in particular to start the game and then through the second quarter. A step slow to some things. Weren't as physical as we need to be. As a result, we created a deficit for ourselves that was tough to overcome. We didn't play as sharp as we needed to, and we had a poor shooting night. It was our worst shooting night since Game 1 against Portland from the perimeter in terms of missing open shots. We've got to play through that. To win games when that happens, you've got to win with your energy and your hustle, and that wasn't there at a high enough level in that game.

Q. The social justice piece has obviously been a big part of your guys' time in Orlando. Did you address the team or was there any team discussion about the Breonna Taylor news that came out maybe an hour before your practice?

FRANK VOGEL: We were in staff meetings right up until our team meeting, so we haven't had a chance to address it with our group. We have not addressed it.

Q. What did you guys do at practice today? How rigorous was it? And also, did everyone come out okay health-wise? I saw that Alex had a little wrap on his wrist. Is that anything to be concerned about?

FRANK VOGEL: Yeah, practice was the same as it's been in between games for the whole Playoffs, where it's really more of a mental day, long film session, look at cleanups, walk through a few things on the court and have everybody shoot free throws. Then the guys that didn't play will get some three-on-three, four-on-four, which they're doing now.

In terms of injuries, Alex does have some soreness in his wrist that we will MRI this afternoon for precautionary reasons, but he's listed as probable. We expect him to play. Danny Green has an injury to the volar plate on his ring finger of his left hand and will also be listed as probable. We would expect him to play as well. He's in there shooting right now.

Q. You mentioned yesterday that Dwight, if he takes care of some foul issues, has a chance to play a bigger role. What are sort of the conversations with Dwight where he can bring energy and areas where he needs to rein it in?

FRANK VOGEL: Balance. Physicality without fouls is really what we want. Perfect scenario is he has one or two fouls throughout the game but just brings a physical presence and toughness and energy to the game. I'm really happy with the energy that he's playing with. He's really producing positive results on the court, but some of it is negated with the fouls, for sure.

Q. You mentioned very judiciously about contacting the league and stuff like that, but internally it seems like the officiating has caused you guys problems. There was a bench technical. There was plenty of on-court complaining, guys not getting back --

FRANK VOGEL: I don't have any comment publicly about it at this time.

Q. As a team, do you think you guys are handling as best you can?

FRANK VOGEL: Yeah, I mean, I think we're exhibiting decent composure. I know we got the tech in Game 2, but yeah, we're playing through it.

Q. I'm curious, you were asked about Breonna Taylor; will you bring the group together to talk about it or do those conversations tend to happen organically individually?

FRANK VOGEL: I like to keep that stuff private, to be honest.

Q. You were talking about the shots yesterday. Did you like the selection of the shots? Were those shots that you felt were the right shots? And then in that fourth quarter, what stood out to you when you guys did start making that run? What do you feel like you guys were doing that maybe wasn't happening in the first three quarters?

FRANK VOGEL: We just threw a junk defense out there. I don't know if that's something that's really sustainable. A lot of times when a team has a big lead you can just kind of make a run at it by throwing a junk defense. It worked in a short burst there. But we've just got to be better with who we are, with our base defense, base coverages, and executing offensively better. I thought the shot selection was pretty good. I thought we were still a little too careless with our turnovers. For the most part, I thought we got decent looks, but we can always be better.

Q. Obviously you guys are undefeated in the postseason in your Mamba jerseys. Tomorrow is the 24th. Are you guys planning on wearing them tomorrow?

FRANK VOGEL: I don't think so, but I really don't know. [Vogel told the Lakers will not be wearing the jerseys.] We're not? We're not. We're not wearing them tomorrow.

Q. You were talking earlier about Dwight finding that balance in terms of physicality. He seems to really be embracing the idea of being an irritant, specifically to Jokic while they're out there. Do you have any concerns that he might be leaning a little bit too much into this in terms of not being able to find that balance?

FRANK VOGEL: Not really. Just with everything that we ask all of our guys to do, you want to have the right balance with it. I'd rather him err on the side of being too aggressive than not aggressive enough. Like I said, we've just got to make sure we reap the benefits of it without negating some of that with the fouls.

Q. You said that you threw a junk defense out there last night and it just kind of worked, took care of the rhythm for a little bit. We saw in the Eastern Conference Finals it happened, Miami, and they played more zone generally, too. Why don't teams ever do that when they're winning?

FRANK VOGEL: Because the junk defense is typically not as good as your base defense, and if you're winning with your base defense, why would you go with a defense that's not as good as what you're using?

Q. But with the switch, why has it been so disruptive? It feels like it's happened in different series where teams will give somebody a completely different look --

FRANK VOGEL: Well, it's a different look. Most zones in the NBA are not very good; there's a lot of holes in them and can be easily exploited. It doesn't always happen, but that's why most of the league does not play zone for long stretches.