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NBA FINALS: LAKERS v CELTICS

June 10, 2008

Kobe Bryant

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Game Three

Q. You obviously played like the MVP, at least the last few minutes of the game when the game was so tough, the last five minutes. Take us through those last possessions in the last five minutes.
KOBE BRYANT: Just ran the defense. That's where it was coming from. The first couple times they doubled-teamed me, we missed a couple shots. After that it was single coverage, and at that point it's my responsibility to put the ball in the hole.

Q. Doc after the game said this was the sort of thing that could be looked at as a missed opportunity by the Celtics. Does that make it hard to take a lot of lessons from a game like this?
KOBE BRYANT: No, there's still some things that we're obviously learning from and will do better the next game, I think. They didn't get great games out of their two players, but neither did we. So you've just got to just chalk it up.

Q. Can you talk about what Sasha was able to accomplish tonight off the bench?
KOBE BRYANT: A machine. Played like a machine. Knocked down shots when he needed to. I think he's gotten better as the season has gone on, not just being a spot-up shooter, but being able to put the ball on the floor, one-two bounce, taking a step back. He's really developing into a well-rounded scorer.

Q. Do you think you got something tonight from Trevor, also?
KOBE BRYANT: Absolutely. Our bench came in and did a good job. It's not about offense at this stage of the season. Obviously you want to play better offensively, but defensively is where we really get things done at this point.

Q. Because you were very optimistic about tonight's game for a victory, some of your teammates struggled, so with you is there like a sigh of relief that you got the victory?
KOBE BRYANT: I don't know. I mean, look, we're playing a great defensive team. They're going to take something away. The important thing for us is to figure out how to win despite that, and that's the key if you want to win a championship. We've got to figure out how to win ballgames when we don't shoot particularly well, when Lamar is in foul trouble, when Pau is in foul trouble. We still have to figure out how to win.

Q. Talk about the job, particularly at the end of the game, when you played defense on Pierce, and there was one point a couple minutes left he was inbounding the ball on the side, you two had a conversation. Can you share any of that conversation with us?
KOBE BRYANT: No (laughter).

Q. What about the defense?
KOBE BRYANT: Well, I just tried to stay with him. He's a tough cover. He's a bad boy. He's extremely versatile, go left, go right, shoot it. He's a very tough cover, as tough as you're going to have in the league. I just tried to accept the challenge and tried to make it as tough as I can for him.

Q. What do you say to all the thousands of ESPN talk show hosts, even some of the fans who have lost confidence in you? "On Monday the Lakers are through" and all this, and now that you've won, do you have any messages for those people?
KOBE BRYANT: It wouldn't be talk radio if everybody was just so optimistic and positive (laughter). That's not fun. You've got to have hosts that are going to throw sh-- to the window. If you don't have that, nobody is going to listen to it. So amen to them; it's entertaining.

Q. You missed seven free throws. Have you ever had a game that you know of -- I've never seen it from you, and how does it make you feel?
KOBE BRYANT: It felt like I was in a foreign territory because I haven't been there in so long. It's like somebody took me and just dropped me off in the middle of Shanghai with no translator, you know what I'm saying (laughter)? And no dictionary; it was crazy.

Q. How did you get out of it?
KOBE BRYANT: At least I got there (laughter). So that's a positive.

Q. Obviously mathematically this wasn't a must-win, but did you view this as a game you virtually must win?
KOBE BRYANT: No, what I tried to do with my teammates is just stay calm. It wasn't the end of the world. They did a great job of defending home court. We knew we had to come here and do the same. But it's important that they understand that I'm not pressing, I'm not worried or anything like that because they feed off of that. They feed off of my confidence, and I have all the confidence in the world that we can come here and win.

Q. How concerned were you guys late third quarter, early fourth when the crowd was dead and so was your offense, and then after that how were you able to pick it up again?
KOBE BRYANT: Well, they're going to have moments in the game where their defense holds them. They're just going to have those moments, and it's important that we just stay in those moments and don't allow them to build such a huge cushion during that time. So when their defense picks up, ours has to do the same. We managed to do that. They got a four-point lead, five-point lead here and there, but we didn't allow them to go on those big runs like they did in Boston, those 10-2 runs, 12-1 runs. We were able to weather that.

Q. Celtics have done a good job in shutting off the rest of your starting line-up for the first three games. How much do you feel that they're challenging you to say, okay, let's see how many games you can beat us?
KOBE BRYANT: I don't know. For me it's a pretty simple formula, just take it to them, just go to the basket. If they come, then I'm going to hit Pau, I'm going to hit Sasha, I'm going to find Lamar. That's how we try to play. We don't really focus on how -- if Pau is struggling or Lamar is struggling. We just want to move the ball, make them double and it's on Lamar and Pau just to make the right plays. I think particularly Lamar did that down the stretch. He didn't press because he wasn't putting the ball in the hole. He just made the right holes and Sasha ended up going for a big three. It's not really important to us.

Q. Do you feel that pressure at all, that they are waiting just to attack you?
KOBE BRYANT: No, not really. I mean, for me, I just play. We just do what we've been taught to do. I just do what I've learned to do throughout the years on how to handle double-teams and zone coverages and things like that. Just do what we do.

Q. How were you able to find holes in their defense tonight? A lot more of your shots came from inside the paint than the first two games.
KOBE BRYANT: I just went, took it to them. I just went and just had the confidence that once I get in there I'll be able to make the right play and hopefully some of the whistles will go our way a little bit tonight, get to the free-throw line. If they collapse, I'll hit my shooters. They did a great job in Boston of just zoning and not having to help too much. That's something I wanted to put their defense in jeopardy a little bit more than we did in Boston.

Q. Ray Allen said he thought that the smaller lineup probably prevented them from packing it back on you as much, that they had to come out and play you. Have you discovered something with that smaller lineup, and if you have, what are the limitations and liabilities to it?
KOBE BRYANT: Well, it seemed to work for us pretty well in the fourth quarter there in Boston, so we went back to it a little bit tonight, and we have such great perimeter shooting, it does put a little bit more pressure on them to have to guard me with man coverage.
When they do that, then like I said, it's my responsibility to make the right play.

Q. There was a key position with about 43 seconds left when Ray had you in iso coverage out towards center court. You guys both got away, and he was waiting to see whether there was going to be a picker coming and you were waiting to see whether there was going to be a double coming. Once you saw there was no second defender coming, what went through your head?
KOBE BRYANT: Just be patient. I didn't want to rush, I didn't want to go right into a trap situation where they could crowd me and make sure I had proper spacing and get to a spot on the floor where I could feel comfortable to elevate and shoot or pump fake and step into it and shoot.

Q. The shot that you did end up getting, how confident are you in taking kind of that much of a lead-in from that distance? It was kind of an in-between distance.
KOBE BRYANT: Yeah, I feel pretty comfortable doing it, even though it's a leaner. It's still a good look. So the important thing is just to put enough arc on the ball where it can get over the front of the rim and you make sure you touch it up nice and soft so you can get a little bounce. Tonight it fell in for me.

Q. You're a creative guy, and you're an emotional player on the court. You leave it on the court. Can you describe or share with us what's going through your mind playing in The Finals at home in front of your crowd?
KOBE BRYANT: It's exciting. You know, it's a great opportunity. I'm just happy for the city of Los Angeles, driving in, all the car flags and all the excitement that's in the building. It's fun. I enjoy it. It's a time when you've got to get to work. Once the game starts, I don't think too much about the excitement or the buzz in the building so much as how we're going to win this game. But it's a lot of fun to be in.

Q. You don't have flags on your car?
KOBE BRYANT: No, unfortunately, no, I don't.

End of FastScripts

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