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NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: SPURS v LAKERSMay 22, 2008Lamar OdomLOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Practice Day Q. What did that come-back say about your team? LAMAR ODOM: It says a lot. We came a long way. It says that we are a great team, and that's what it's all about. It started us off. And Sasha came in and gave us some big minutes. Farmar helped as well, Pau and Kobe kind of took the game over at the end of the game. We came a long way as a team and it showed last night. Q. Lamar, do you think it will suck some of the air out of them in a best-of-7 series? LAMAR ODOM: I mean, they're the champions. I watched that New Orleans series where they didn't even come close in New Orleans. They just busted it wide open. You are going to expect a challenge from them at all times. They are well-coached and they have great players. We expect them to come out and try to hit us harder in Game 2. Q. (Indiscernible)? LAMAR ODOM: Yeah, yeah, I had a horrible game to start shooting. Tried the perseverance thing. Tried rebounding. We felt like we could play better. We didn't have our best game. We want to come out and execute and break this team out and move the ball and play the type of basketball we know we are capable of playing. Q. (Indiscernible). LAMAR ODOM: They are going to take some things away from you and they will do a good job, denying Kobe the basketball. They played great defense. They are a machine. They played really well when they came out. And I expect the same thing. We will just play our game, stay a little more composed, take our time and do what we have to do. Q. How would you describe Sasha when he is playing? LAMAR ODOM: Energetic. He moves his feet well. You got to understand, some of these guys from overseas, from Europe, they have been playing since they were 15, 16. He understands the game and, of course, he shoots the ball. Q. Kobe was trying to see where everybody was. A lot of people watching the Western Conference Finals debut, did you feel like you had to get a feel for the game as well? LAMAR ODOM: I wanted to come out as aggressive as possible. I wanted to go down gunning. I got to the hole. I think I could have gone stronger, a little deeper to the basket. Of course, Kobe is going to let us try to get out in the game and, of course, he has the ability to take over any time. Q. (Indiscernible). LAMAR ODOM: I thought we played at our tempo. They won't make many mistakes, you got to understand. They have been in this position before. They have good players. Like I said before, they are well-coached. We just have to execute a little bit better. We know it will come down to the half court. Of course, we like to run and gun, but to beat this team you have to play well at half court and that's what we have to do. Q. In all the turmoil in the off season, when was it that you felt like you would be okay? LAMAR ODOM: In the off-season. We were all right. The reason why we could do it so fast because we paid it no attention. We knew we had to stay close, keep our camaraderie up and everything was going to work out. We never worried. Q. Did you really believe that? LAMAR ODOM: 100%. Q. How do you feel the guys will react tomorrow, given the fact you got through that first game in conference finals? LAMAR ODOM: We feel comfortable. We feel good about our chances in this series. We know, of course, they do as well. We are just going to take our time, play our game, let our coaches coach us and go out there and give maximum effort every day. Q. How would you grade the performance of the game? LAMAR ODOM: I will have to give some different grades. The way we closed the game, you can give that an A. Third quarter I would say a D. And the way we started the game, somewhere between a C plus or a B minus. Q. Overall grade would be? LAMAR ODOM: The overall grade would be we won the game. (Laughter). That's the most important. We passed the test, the first test. We got four more. Q. A couple weeks ago you had said -- can you talk about the goal of the team and the development and how Sasha is contributing now? LAMAR ODOM: He has great energy on and off the court. Somebody called it silly, I call it energy. We have great guys in our locker room and Sasha has improved dramatically. He stayed calm even though his shot wasn't going at times. I always tell him he can do so much more. He is really like a 6' 7" guard. He might be just a little bit taller than Kobe. He can play the point. Of course, he has experience. Once Sasha takes his time and let's his hand come to him, there is nothing that can stop him. Q. Why do you guys pick on him? LAMAR ODOM: That stays in the locker room, sorry. Q. A win like that could crush some teams emotionally. Why wouldn't it crush a team like San Antonio? LAMAR ODOM: They're the champions, right? They have four championships, of course, MVP in Tony, Tim Duncan, great coach in Gregg Popovich, all the experience. We can't expect just one game to break those guys. End of FastScripts |
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