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NBA FINALS: LAKERS v CELTICSJune 10, 2008Phil JacksonLOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Game Three Q. It was a tough lesson actually learned losing the first two in Boston, but what helped your team come back strong and win today? PHIL JACKSON: I think undoubtedly it's the leadership of Kobe Bryant out there. He was aggressive right from the start. You know, put, I think, the defense on the heels -- obviously they caught up and went by us, but we stayed aggressive out there and Kobe was very instrumental in that. Q. Everybody is talking about the offense of Sasha Vujacic. Talk to us a bit about his defense tonight. PHIL JACKSON: Well, Sasha was an awfully tough bench. The open shots he got he made. His defense was good for us tonight, and we couldn't have won the game without his help. Q. Mid-third quarter you lost the lead and Pau hadn't had a field goal yet. Did you think things were getting away from you and did you say anything in particular at that point? PHIL JACKSON: I called two time-outs in that period. If I had no time-outs to call, would I have called a time-out... but you knew I wasn't feeling good about it with two time-outs in that period. I didn't like our match-ups, I didn't like the way we were playing offense. They had obviously committed a lot of bodies to Kobe. He was trying to do too much at that time perhaps, and he was, I think, really wearing himself out, so I was concerned at that time that we weren't getting enough people involved offensively. Jordan and Sasha came in and gave us some help. Q. You talk about the final, 5:40, you guys are up three, but you finished strong to seal the game. What did you guys do? PHIL JACKSON: We got some turnovers, and our defense stepped up a little bit. Offensively we did some things down there at the other end. Pau got a tip-in, we got some second opportunities, Fish got one back off a shot that was a second opportunity, and that changed the course of that. Q. Anything you guys did special on Pierce and Garnett tonight? PHIL JACKSON: I just think that Kevin kind of ran out of gas. It looked like he was gassed sometime in the fourth quarter. Putting Kobe on Pierce was the difference in tonight's game. It was more difficult for him to work to get free. He still had, I thought, some instrumental plays down the stretch. But it made a difference for us tonight. Q. Was there anything else defensively that you liked from the whole team? With all the Celtics they were limiting the good looks. Was there anything else in particular that you liked about the defense your team was playing to limit the Celtics' good looks? PHIL JACKSON: I thought outside of their run-outs in the first half and the transition game that they got -- our first-half defense was exceptional. I thought second half they started to figure some things out, got us off balance in the third quarter. Allen, instrumental in some of it, got some plays going. Obviously the loss of Rondo affected them at some point in the game, in the second half. But I thought Eddie House came in and did a pretty good job for them. Q. What can you say about kind of the tenor of the game, a lot of missed shots, missed free throws, fouls in the first half, kind of herky-jerky? PHIL JACKSON: It was not a beautiful ballgame. That's a transition game from East Coast to West Coast. I think both teams playing on Sunday short, short rest period Sunday night, I think that's just a product of -- if there's a day off, there should have been a day off probably between the transition between coasts. But we'll have a day to catch up tomorrow and hopefully both of us will play better basketball on Thursday night. Q. Sasha in the fourth quarter comes down and misses a three, next time down he makes it. What is it about him that gives him that, at least, confidence to keep shooting? PHIL JACKSON: Well, he's a little bit of a rockhead. That's what we call him. He believes in himself very sincerely that he's going to make the next one, and you have to be that way if you're going to have the guts to go out there and do it. Sasha is always going to make the next shot. That one might have been off, but the next one is going in. Q. Early on you had Kobe on Rondo a fair amount. Is that the notion is trying to really see what's going on in this series and you're going to have to preserve him as much as possible and maybe put him in some defensive situations where he doesn't have to play up? PHIL JACKSON: That, and developed a cross-match at the other end of the floor that got Kobe going early. Obviously it's easier if you make the basket and then you can get matched up, but the cross-match, I think, was effective earlier in the game, Rondo having to guard Kobe, and those situations were beneficial for us. End of FastScripts |
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