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NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: SPURS v LAKERS

May 27, 2008

Kobe Bryant

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS: Game Four

Q. You talked about how your teammates grew up after losing Game 3. How much do you feel like they grew up tonight?
KOBE BRYANT: It is a big step for us. Game 3 was an opportunity for us to learn in terms of how hard we need to play, the speed we need to play with.
Tonight we came out and did a much, much better job to win in this building in this particular game. It's big for us.

Q. The last few seconds, was that a foul on Fisher in your opinion?
KOBE BRYANT: No.

Q. A little contact but it wasn't enough to draw a whistle?
KOBE BRYANT: Not with all the contact that was going on during the game, no way.

Q. Is there any reason to think the Spurs can win three straight?
KOBE BRYANT: Yeah, they're the champs. Absolutely.

Q. Kobe, can you describe the emotions going on in your body when you watch that shot go up, you watch the play and then the sigh of relief, I assume, afterwards?
KOBE BRYANT: Extremely relieved. They hadn't made like three straight 3s, and Brent, the last one he shot was in the corner, it rattled in. It was kind of one of those nights that he was having.
I was -- I was nervous, man. I was nervous. Just kind of watched the flight of the ball. Once it hit the side of the backboard, I was extremely relieved.

Q. In the first half in particular when you had the huge edge and offensive rebounds, second-chance points, do you feel like that deflated them at all?
KOBE BRYANT: I don't know if it deflated them. I think what it did for us, it kept us involved because we had a couple turnovers here and there, a couple missed opportunities. Luke was struggling a little bit. But he stayed on the glass.
And us getting second-chance opportunities, getting easy buckets after that was a huge confidence booster for that.

Q. Obviously you are going home. What does the mind-set have to be for Game 5 now?
KOBE BRYANT: Just focus on one game. We have been doing a good job of that all year, just focusing on one game.
Just preparing as much as we can, get ready for them.

Q. It seems like every time the game was tied tonight or the momentum was going their way, it is like you took the ball and took over. It is almost like -- I know it sounds trite. It almost sounds like you weren't going to let the team lose. What is your mind-set in that situation? I know you talked about it before, but what about tonight?
KOBE BRYANT: In the fourth quarter when I checked back in, I think it was a two-point game. I knew I had to get something going and knock down a couple shots, give us a little breathing room, to give us a little bit more confidence.

Q. After Manu's previous game, did you guys do anything different or just pay more attention to him or anything?
KOBE BRYANT: A little bit. If we were going to go down with him shooting, I wanted to make sure he was shooting in my face. I can sleep a little better at night with that. And I think the game didn't flow his way. The Game 3 just -- sometimes it just flows. He got a come 3s, knocked them down. Next thing you know he is in a great rhythm.
What we wanted to do was stay attached to him as much as possible and try not to give him any open looks.

Q. I know this time of the year your legs can get kind of heavy. Has it been a while since you had so many dunks in a game? It seems like all of them were pretty momentum.
KOBE BRYANT: I haven't had a chance to get down an open court that much. It felt good to kind of -- to get up there a little bit and throw a couple of them down.

Q. I think you shot one free throw in two days or none in two days or something. How can you take that many shots and not get fouled?
KOBE BRYANT: I don't know (laughter).

Q. No comment?
KOBE BRYANT: Not without getting fined, no. (Laughter).

Q. But you also didn't -- I didn't see you going nuts tonight. You weren't yelling or screaming at the guy. What's the philosophy?
KOBE BRYANT: Just let it go. Nothing you can do about it. You try to shoot through it and see if you can't make a couple of them.
But not much you can do about it.

Q. Four of their top six players scored 14 points total. Did that help some of you guys, able to roam a little bit and help out in other situations?
KOBE BRYANT: It is uncomfortable to rotate against the Spurs because they're all great shooters. They have their spots on the floor where they're comfortable shooting from, so it is always a little uncomfortable to do it.
I felt like we did it with purpose tonight. I felt like we had the right energy tonight to be able to do that in spurts, not for 48 minutes, but pick our spots to do it.

End of FastScripts

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