	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

NBA FINALS: MAGIC v LAKERS

June 6, 2009

Phil Jackson

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Practice Day

Q. Have you been able to track why this team has played to well really since the fourth quarter of Game 5 against Denver? It seemed like the team started to turn around right then.
PHIL JACKSON: Yeah, I don't want to put too much emphasis on past efforts. The last successful act you do, that's kind of a statement we use or a motto we use. You have to regenerate that all the time. They have a good feel right now, and hopefully they can sustain that tomorrow.

Q. Do you fear Orlando's three-point shooters tomorrow?
PHIL JACKSON: Yes.

Q. Obviously they were off yesterday.
PHIL JACKSON: Yeah, their whole game is going to improve, we know that.

Q. Can you talk about Andrew's whole postseason that he's gone through and the way he responded in Game 1, and kind of gave the team a lift to start off the game and what you expect from the rest of the series?
PHIL JACKSON: You know, Andrew has had a year that's been a repeat almost of last season, you know, started to play really well in the month of December, got himself a 40-point game in January, then had the accident again almost at the same time, an incident that created a possible loss of season. This year he's more fortunate and he was able to come back off of his injury.
Playing a handful of games at the end of the season I think was a benefit for him. You know, he didn't fully get to rehab his knee, but he got as close as we can possibly get before he started playing. So that's one of the things that we're really concerned, that he fully rehabs after the season is over and he's 100 percent. But he's come back and played with a brace which has some limitation.
You know, he's playing a limited role I would say right now. He's looking to expand that, obviously. But right now fouls are probably generating much more quickly than he'd like it to happen out there on the floor.
We're trying to support him. He gave us a lift in the first quarter of the game the other day, and that's what we want, that early inside presence out there in the ballgame, and the combination of Pau and Drew out there gave us that impact.
Pau has been very good at looking for Andrew, feeding Andrew, getting the ball into him when he has an open spot and an opportunity, and I think that's helped Andrew's game a lot. He's very animated, intensely focused, I think, on this match-up between himself and Howard, almost too much so, to the point where he still has to help, he still has to stop penetration. But he really has it in his mind that he's going to stay attached to him, keep his body off the rim or away from the rebounds.

Q. But statistically in Game 1, almost a wash with him and Howard, maybe that intensity and him focusing on that match-up helped your team?
PHIL JACKSON: Well, Andrew is a really good shooter. I mean, he's going to make baskets if he's in a position to score. He's a good enough shooter to have a touch and make baskets and shoot free throws, we know that. The big key with him is defensive help, defensive retreat and how active he can be at that end of the floor.

Q. I wonder if you could compare the importance of limiting Dwight Howard's offense versus limiting Hedo Turkoglu's offense, which carries more importance?
PHIL JACKSON: When you figure out the leaders of this team without Nelson on the floor, you have to figure out that Turkoglu is the leader by his amount of assists that he has, the ability to create shots for a lot of his teammates by his penetration off the ball, with the ball, off screens. You know, his value to the team at the end of the game in critical situations. So we have great respect for that aspect.
However, Howard is always that threat inside, which that's a 60 percent conversion. He gets the ball inside, he's going to shoot 60 percent. If he's close enough, he can finish. He leads the league in dunks. Those things are devastating to defense because a lot of times it all ends up with a three-point play attached to it, what we call the old-fashioned way. So really you've got the best of both worlds in the first game, he was 1 for 6 and the three-point shooters were limited to a few baskets. So we know that's going to change, and we want to make sure that we stay with our emphasis to stop penetration, and that's the big thing, stop interior passes if we can, stop penetration off the dribble because that's going to erupt to three-point shooting opportunities.

Q. How much does your size on Hedo impact him? Stan pointed to that yesterday as a big difference from what he faced in the last two rounds?
PHIL JACKSON: Well, West, the defender from Cleveland, he's a 6'2" defender, 6'3" at most. Trevor is angular, tall, wing span. Then we have big guys coming to help with that size and length.
It's been noted this year that the size that we play with has some effect on teams as far as penetration and passing and dribbling and then making the passes. So we've tried to accentuate that.

Q. How long do you think Kobe is going to stay around?
PHIL JACKSON: He'll probably be leaving in 10 minutes, 15 minutes (smiling).
I think that Kobe is going to play it out for as long as he can. I think he's just a player that is going to find a way regardless. When his skill level deteriorates, he's going to find a level to play at that his athleticism is going to allow. I can see him playing to a 36, 37 year age.

Q. Is there still growth in that game, still improvement that he can make?
PHIL JACKSON: I think all players that remain physically competent, or as close to 90 percent of their physical talent as they get old get better, they just get better. Their reactive ability is probably most noted on the defensive end when they have to stop and change directions and get down in defensive stance. That's usually where they get hurt the most at that time.
But you saw guys like Stackhouse and Jordan playing past 35 with great ability. There's no reason why Kobe won't.

Q. What do you think is the biggest misconception about Kobe?
PHIL JACKSON: That he's a nice guy. He's a killer. He's a gun slinger, and he's a guy that's going to take the weak and have no mercy on them. That's one of the things about Kobe. He's a tough character, and he's got a real nice demeanor and he carries himself very well.
The other thing is that I think people thought that he was a selfish ballplayer, the aspect about him. All of us have a certain amount of ego in this game, and I'm sure no one would doubt that. But he understands what the mood and the temperament of the game is a lot of time, reads the game, knows when he has to carry the thrust of our team a lot and then knows a lot of times if he's got to pull back or sit back and let some other people do what they can do best on the team.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297