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NBA FINALS: MAGIC v LAKERS

June 14, 2009

Stan Van Gundy

ORLANDO, FLORIDA: Game Five

Los Angeles Lakers - 99
Orlando Magic - 86

Q. With this loss tonight, what are your expectations for next year? The Lakers lost last year, came back, had a victorious year. What is your outlook for next year? You guys made it this far. Do you think you can come back and just do like the Lakers did and take it to the championship for next year?
STAN VAN GUNDY: You know, I mean, I don't know how many minutes it is after the game, but I haven't given one thought to next year or what's next. I just haven't. I mean, we were in the middle of a series, and I haven't thought about next year at all.

Q. What did you tell your team? Where do you begin to console them in the wake of this defeat?
STAN VAN GUNDY: I don't know if you can console anybody. It's very, very difficult. I didn't have a lot to say tonight. I feel the same way they did, and I just thanked them for what they did this year. They were a great group to work with. They busted their ass all year, and attitude-wise and stuff they were great. I thanked them for that. That was about it.
Obviously sort of the last game of the year, it's always really hard because what you're used to doing as a coach is you're trying to say whatever it is you say with an eye on the next game or what's next, and when you hit the last game of the year there's nothing, so there's really not a lot to say as a coach.

Q. Other than the first game, was this the best the Lakers played, or was it something that you guys did that let them play this way?
STAN VAN GUNDY: I thought it was both. I thought that we came off, got off to a great start, and I thought they did a very good job weathering the storm. Where the game turned, even though for the game, 13 turnovers, not great but it's not awful, but we hit that second quarter, we just didn't handle the ball at all, ran them into easy opportunities, and I thought it really turned on that.
But I think if you just look, I mean, they're plus-11 on the boards, plus-11 at the free-throw line, and they're 8 for 16 from three and we're 8 for 27. Those are the numbers.
I thought our guys fought hard. I did not think that we handled the frustration really well, and that's why I think one mistake, one bad play in that stretch kept leading to another. And then I thought we fought hard in the second half, but they just had an answer for everything.

Q. You have beaten them three out of four over two seasons in the regular seasons. Were they different in The Finals?
STAN VAN GUNDY: Well, I've said this before. I said the same thing going into the Cleveland series, even though we ended up winning it, I don't put a lot of stock in the regular season when it comes to the playoffs. I mean, it's just different. Everything about it is different, plus when you're talking about somebody from the West Coast, you play them twice a year. So yeah, we won three of four, but all four games were real, real close. We had three close ones in this series, but they beat the hell out of us twice.
Were they different? I mean, they played better than they did in the regular season, but I don't know if that's like a big surprise, really. I thought they were really playing well at the end of the year. Obviously the last two games of the Denver series and throughout our series I thought they played really well.

Q. I'll ask it another way: How good are they?
STAN VAN GUNDY: They obviously just won a championship, so they're the best team in the league, and pretty damn good. How many games in the regular season?

Q. 65.
STAN VAN GUNDY: I haven't done that very often, so they're a damn good team. As I said before the game, it's a hard -- I know we can't play well tonight, but it's always a hard thing to sort out how much of it is you playing poorly and how much of it is them playing well. I don't have the total answer to that. But I think when you get to this point and the team wins a championship, you have to give them the credit I think is the proper thing to do more than bemoan the way we played. I thought they were terrific.

Q. Phil Jackson now has ten championships, most in NBA history. In your opinion is it fair to call him the greatest coach in league history?
STAN VAN GUNDY: Oh, yeah. Hey, listen, some of the stuff is almost incomprehensible, okay. I think if I'm right, the guy has won 51 playoff series now. Check your record book and see how many coaches have even won 50 playoff games. It's fewer than 20, and the guy has won 51 playoff series. It's incomprehensible.

Q. Do you think people make too much -- obviously he had great players, but do you think people give him short shrift because he had Michael Jordan and Kobe and Shaq?
STAN VAN GUNDY: I'll say this. First of all, I don't think people give him short shrift. Maybe you'll hear the comment he had great players. First of all, I don't know of a team that's ever won it once that doesn't have great players. I mean, tell me the team that didn't have great players that won a championship. I'm unaware.
And yeah, he's had great players, but the guy wins all the time. If you have Kobe and those guys and you're losing, okay, maybe they can talk about it. But that guy is winning all the time. You can't give him short shrift. I don't know Phil Jackson at all. You guys all know him better than I do. But damn, you look at the guy's record, it's undeniable.

Q. Is it too early after the series to compare LeBron and Kobe? You've seen both of them in back-to-back series.
STAN VAN GUNDY: I don't get into that anyway. I said it -- it's great players. My standard answer on that, and you can say I'm bailing on the question, but it's actually true, when you get two guys like that, you want to compare the two of them, what I always say is you pick first, I'll take second pick and I'll be happy as hell. Those guys are great, great players.
Trying to distinguish between the two of them to me is -- they're both pretty damned good.

Q. What's this ride been like for you to go farther with a team than you ever have but also be in the crosshairs probably more than you ever have?
STAN VAN GUNDY: You know, I don't know right now to be honest. Maybe in a day, two days, a week, whatever, maybe I can reflect a little. Right now it's just all disappointment.

Q. The second quarter they really seemed to turn it on, Trevor making a lot of plays. Was that really where it turned?
STAN VAN GUNDY: Yeah, that's what I said. Even though the 13 turnovers for the game isn't outlandish, I thought -- they scored 30 points, but I thought our offensive play in the second quarter, we were not able to execute and handle the ball against them, and we bunched our mistakes, turnovers and bad shots, and they got off on that run.
And then what I had said before you came in, I thought in the second half we played better and we fought hard, but they just always had an answer. We just could not get over the top. Lamar stuck, I thought, a couple of big threes, and we just couldn't get anything going that had an answer for everything. I thought our guys competed very hard, and other than a six-minute stretch in the second quarter, I didn't even think we played that badly. But we just didn't have an answer.

Q. What do you take from this season considering no one expected you guys to be here?
STAN VAN GUNDY: Again, and I'm not trying to be an ass, sometimes I do try to be an ass, but I'm not trying to be an ass, I'm just not at the point of being able to reflect right now. Right now it's just -- I expected to be getting ready for Game 6 and getting on a plane to LA. Right now it's just disappointment, especially with you because you'll be around. We can talk about that in the days and weeks to come, but not right now.

End of FastScripts

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