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NBA FINALS: LAKERS v CELTICS

June 6, 2008

Phil Jackson

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS: Practice Day

Q. There was a lot of talk yesterday about the difference in physicality between the teams. Is that something that can be fixed in a day or two leading up to Sunday here?
COACH PHIL JACKSON: You know, only if the referees draw a distinction to it and they say this is illegal physical activity and this isn't. But that's hard to do. It's hard to have that influence with the officiating so that they're going to call the game that way.
I've seen a change in the course of series, but this team that plays hard and plays physical, we have to match it at some level. We had to in the series with Utah, so we're aware of being able to do that.

Q. Lamar and Pau, what do those two need to do to be a little more effective on offense?
COACH PHIL JACKSON: Well, you know, I think it's a matter of spacing, correct spacing. I think we can remedy that. Other than that, guys have to take shots, have to take the 12-, 14-foot shots that are available throughout the course. So we're trying to get them to just settle in and take a jump shot.
But more than anything else we need second shots. We need to be able to get there and get some second shots.

Q. What did you think of your team's defense in Game 1, and what perhaps do they need to do better in Game 2 defensively?
COACH PHIL JACKSON: We're okay Game 1. We had a good first half, and obviously there's some reasons for that.
Second half, 31-point third quarters, I told them that's unacceptable, exacerbated, perhaps, by the amount of threes, three and a foul. Three-point plays, we had four of them in that quarter. Those things will happen. Teams will get hot and they'll have a run, and we have to find a way to squelch that.
Other than that, we're okay. There's some things to learn obviously and some mistakes to eliminate, but we tried to do what we had to do. The only other problem with our defense is the offensive boards and we gave up second-chance opportunities.

Q. Have you told the guys anything about just because you're down 0-1 what it's going to take to rebound from being behind for the first time?
COACH PHIL JACKSON: You know, we talked about getting a step ahead of your time, all the time, thinking about if we win the next game, then we can do this and this and this or whatever. It's not about that; it's about coming out and playing a quarter or a segment of a quarter at a time to carry that kind of momentum moment by moment and play by play, which we're trying to get accomplished. If you get focused on too far ahead you're in trouble. Right now it's about going out and having a good start next game, and the reality is about having a good practice tomorrow to set up a good game on Sunday.

Q. You guys had a lift from your bench all playoff long and season long, as well, but last night I'm not sure it was really there. Talk about the bench play last night.
COACH PHIL JACKSON: I really shortened the minutes of the bench last night, so that's not their fault about not scoring and no productivity. A lot of it was the shortening in the minutes, a few days between games here, plenty of time for guys to recover, guys that haven't experienced this first game is probably more akin to what they can do. Fish had a really good game going for him early in the game, those type of things. The adjustments that our younger plays will make, our bench players will be noticeable as we go through.

Q. Do you want to change the tempo or the pace of the game in Game 2?
COACH PHIL JACKSON: You know, to do that you have to control the boards. That's one of the things you have to control, and you've got to keep teams off the free-throw line. Those two things we didn't do last night. So yes, I'd like to be able to do that, but that's going to have to be done in a way that's sufficient. You have to eliminate fouling and getting in the penalty early in the quarters and then at least maintain some board presence.

Q. Talk about shortening your rotation, but you did take Kobe out for his normal three-minute stretches in the fourth quarter. Any anxiety there, or were you just comfortable leaving him out for those stretches?
COACH PHIL JACKSON: Well, I thought that his shot just wasn't falling for him last night, to give him three minutes here between this time-out and the next time-out, the 8:50 and 5:50 time-out, let's give ourselves a blow and let's come out -- they held serve so that's okay. We came back, six-point ballgame, so I felt okay about it, that part. We just didn't finish the game the way we wanted to.

Q. Three games against the Celtics this year, Kobe struggled in each. Do you attribute that to what they're doing defensively? Or with Kobe is it just Kobe, is it whatever he's doing that game and that's the result?
COACH PHIL JACKSON: It certainly has something to do with it. The defense is there. He didn't get to the basket, he didn't get to the foul line. Foul shots are really important for scoring, and again, they eliminated a lot of his ability to get to the foul line. So there's some things they did very well.
But as we all saw, there was a lot of shots there that just didn't go down for him that were in and out. So that's a matter of understanding his baskets, getting a touch on them and figuring it out.

Q. Some people were calling last night a Willis Reed moment. Did it go through your mind at all when you saw Pierce come back? And just a memory of that night, because you were there that night?
COACH PHIL JACKSON: Well, if I'm not mistaken, I think Willis Reed missed a whole half and three quarters almost of a game and literally had to have a shot, a horse shot, three or four of them in his thigh to come back out and play. Paul got carried off and was back on his feet in a minute. I don't know if the angels visited him at halftime or in that time-out period that he had or not, but he didn't even limp when he came back out on the floor. I don't know what was going on there (laughter). Was Oral Roberts back there in their locker room (laughter)?
But he certainly carried some energy back on the floor for them.

Q. You talked about the importance of keeping them off the free-throw line. Why do you think they were getting to the line so much in Game 1?
COACH PHIL JACKSON: Well, they created some fouls by aggressive drives. We put hands on them and they were called, and those are things that we have to eliminate. We also got some fouls boxing out, and that's a function that we have to do a better job of. They're more aggressive in that particular aspect of the game.

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