|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
NBA FINALS: LAKERS v CELTICSJune 5, 2008Derek FisherBOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS: Game One Q. When Paul Pierce went down, a couple of the Celtics said they got rejuvenated when he came back, but Phil Jackson said it was kind of overrated that he came back, that the emotions had already changed. What's your take on that? DEREK FISHER: Yeah, I don't know how much him coming back really changed the energy in the game. I think he had already done that by the five or six quick points he scored there to start the third quarter. So I think that momentum and that energy had already changed before he went down. I don't know if when he came back there was much of a difference. I think they actually were playing pretty good while he was out, more so even when he came back. Q. Coming into the game there was talk about the physicality of the Celtics' defense. Phil was here, Kobe just said the same thing, "They were more physical than us tonight. We can't let that happen." Do you agree, and how do you address that going into Game 2? DEREK FISHER: I think at certain times they were. I don't know if it was a thing for the entire game, but I do think there were some stretches where there was some rebound opportunities and some loose ball opportunities where their guys wanted the ball more than our guys did. I don't know if that was specifically just being more physical or just having more desire in that situation. I thought for the most part we did a decent job, especially in the first half, of still doing some things we'd like to do, but in the second half it got away from us. Q. How did they make it so difficult? Kobe seemed like he had to take a lot of contested shots? And what did you see them doing defensively against him? DEREK FISHER: Well, I think they're not going to give him much of an opportunity to break down their defense off of dribble penetration, so he's going to end up in a situation where he's taking more of catch-and-shoot opportunities when he's coming off of cuts and coming off of screens and catching and shooting the basketball. That's something that he's going to get used to as the series goes on. He's so great at breaking down defenses off the dribble. The Celtics' defense just doesn't allow that type of play. As the series goes on, he'll understand where his shots are going to come from and what spots, and he'll shoot the ball I think at a higher percentage than he did tonight. Q. You've been through a lot of these. Game 1 of this series, what do you get from this game? What do you walk away saying? Not so much predicting what's going to happen, but what happens after this game? DEREK FISHER: Well, I think in order to win a series, you have to be flexible and you can't have any preconceived notions about the way the series is going to go. If you get into your mind that you have to win this game or you have to win that game or you have to do this, I think it takes away from your ability to be in the moment during the game. So we have to obviously make some adjustments and make plans to win Game 2 from here. I don't know if we really get too caught up in the final result in terms of losing the game as opposed to looking at some of the things that we can drastically improve in. I think one thing is just defending without fouling, particularly in the second half. There were a lot of possessions where instead of making them make a basket, we fouled them and put them to the free-throw line, and you can't defend anybody at the free-throw line. End of FastScripts |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|