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NBA FINALS: PISTONS v LAKERS

June 13, 2004

Kobe Bryant

DETROIT, MICHIGAN: Game Four

Q. Your shooting percentage looks like my shooting percentage. What's going on? The talent is there, the legs are there.
KOBE BRYANT: Yeah, I've just got to shoot through it. Prince is a long guy. He's able to get his hands up on my arms and my follow-throughs. He's doing a good job staying in front of me.
The next game is not about looking for foul calls or trying to get to the free throw line. It's just about making those shots.
Q. Are they pushing you to certain areas? Do you feel that there's a game plan to take you to certain areas so Rasheed will help because he's long, also, and he kind of grabbed a couple of times, the ball and blocked a shot?
KOBE BRYANT: They are just running at me. If I get a step, they are just coming. I hit a couple of guys, shots didn't fall. But, yeah, they are just running guys over every time I have a penetration.
But I like the challenge of HORSE if you think you can compete with my shooting percentage. (Laughter).
Q. Down the stretch there was some composure issues for the team, a technical and committing some fouls, how much of a factor was that in the outcome?
KOBE BRYANT: That was somewhat of a factor. It was Gary's offensive foul, I really didn't see the play. My technical foul, actually, I didn't make any comment towards the referee. It was actually about the particular play. But I guess in the moment he T'd me up.
Q. Can you talk about what Rasheed did in this game and maybe what he's done for this team since the trade in general?
KOBE BRYANT: I think Rasheed gives them a lot of confidence because he's been there before. He gives them, defensively, a big presence, offensively he's able to spread the floor. He's been big for this team.
Q. Magic Johnson had some pretty strong words about the Lakers' effort on Saturday. Was he wrong and what impact did those comments have?
KOBE BRYANT: I don't even know what he said. What did he say?
Q. He said there wasn't enough effort to win and some guys weren't doing their jobs.
KOBE BRYANT: We lost, didn't we? (Laughing) I guess we didn't do our jobs. That's all across the board. Did he say anybody in particular? A comment like that, I'll take it all across the board. We all pretty much sucked the last two games and we'll try to do better the next game.
Q. What is the confidence like of this team and the mood of them right now, and what can we look for from you guys on Tuesday night?
KOBE BRYANT: I think everybody is a little down right now. But the important thing is, we have to win the next game. It's a one-game series. By any means necessary, we have to win the next game and then just go from there.
Q. How would you critique your own shot selection? Do you think those are the best shots that you could get? And second of all, how can you get more out of the role players, like Payton seems lost out there, doesn't take his shots, doesn't look for all of them, because even if you and Shaq have a good game, you have to get something from the other guys, how can you get them to have a better performance?
KOBE BRYANT: My shot selection, some of them were good and some of them stunk. That's pretty much every game with me.
As far as getting stuff out of the other guys, you just have to take shots. When you have them, they have to take them. Devean George passed up wide-open shots, an opportunity to be aggressive. We cannot lose our aggressiveness. We still have to attack this team. For them it's just about attacking. When you have the opportunities, take them.
Q. Putting the Pistons aside, is Karl Malone's injury the difference between your performances throughout the playoffs and in the Western Conference and now in this series?
KOBE BRYANT: Yeah, it's a big factor right now. Because he's not able to get out there on the floor and play for us, he does so many great things for us and we're not getting much off the bench with Slava coming in there, he's not been able to knock down shots yet. It's hindered us. Luke is coming in and he's doing an admirable job, but he's playing out of character having to guard Rasheed down there, but he's doing the best job he can.
Yeah, Karl's injury is hurting us right now.

End of FastScripts...

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