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NBA FINALS: MAGIC v LAKERS

June 5, 2009

Stan Van Gundy

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Practice Day

Q. You had said before we started this that the rebounding would be huge. What did you see last night with their bigs and what kind of match-ups?
STAN VAN GUNDY: Well, I think that one of the things we said to start the series was not only would the rebounding be key, but that we wouldn't be able to do it with one guy; that we were going to need some contributions. I think we watched film this morning, and I think our guys would agree with me on this, so I'm not saying anything behind their backs. They watched the film. The Lakers are a very good rebounding team. It's going to be difficult for us the entire series. But last night as far as the rebounding, we simply did not compete on the glass. It was not like we gave a good effort and still got our butts kicked on the glass. We didn't make anywhere near a good enough effort on the glass to even say whether or not we can rebound with them or not.
The effort we made on the rebounding part of things was embarrassing.

Q. Is that true for the points in the paint, that it goes hand in hand?
STAN VAN GUNDY: Points in the paint, some of those are offensive rebounds, so obviously that raises the total. But I also think the points in the paint, we didn't do a good job on our rotations, on our help, on our syncs, on things like that. But I think some of those things I've got to take responsibility for. There's some game plan things and some adjustments we need to make. So that's more, I think, an X and O thing, or at least partially.
But the rebounding, like I said, I'll blame myself for a lot of things, and I did in the first game, but I don't really have an adjustment for when the ball goes up on the rim and everybody is going after it. I can't really X and O that. You're either going to put a body on somebody and go get the ball or you're not. And last night, not.

Q. Whenever the subject of exorbitant contracts in the NBA comes up, Rashard Lewis is always thrown into the mix. The last couple years have you ever noticed him playing under the expectations of that?
STAN VAN GUNDY: I think the only time we noticed that was exhibition games his first year. When we first got into the exhibition games, I think he felt it for sure, but he got off to a good start his first year in the regular season. He did not play well in the exhibition season but once he got going, not at all I don't think. I think he went through the questions at the beginning of this playoffs, some of the media questioned whether he was worth his contract. I think his play in the playoffs, obviously wasn't real good last night, but I think his play in the playoffs, especially in very big moments, has sort of taken care of that question for him. I mean, he's really come up big both years in the playoffs for us in the biggest of games.

Q. Rafer said last night that sitting the entire second quarter kind of threw him off his game a little bit. He never really got back in the flow. Do you think there's any legitimacy to that? And will you use your point guards differently in Game 2?
STAN VAN GUNDY: Well, I think I did have Jameer out there too long a stretch in the second quarter. I thought he played really well early in the second quarter, and so I continued to go with him. First game back in four months, it was too long.
As far as Rafer, having that affect his play in the second half, that's up to him. If I'm looking from the outside, that sounds like an excuse to me.

Q. Rashard's role in Seattle was much more play off others, which he still does on some occasions, but an increase in role or even a change to be more of a go-to guy, how difficult a transition is that? And how has he done over the years with that?
STAN VAN GUNDY: It's not so much that we go to him more. In a lot of ways we go to him less. He's got to play off of other people more. I think what really has changed for him over the two years is he went from being a small forward to where he was basically a post-up guy, had a pretty good match-up all the time down there, was playing with two legitimate big guys. To here, I think what's difficult for him he's got to do different things every night out. So there's nights he's got a good post-up match-up and we put him down there, other nights he's got to get out on the perimeter, other nights where he has to play a lot of pick-and-rolls. I think it does make it tough on a guy to really get into a rhythm because he's not getting the same types of opportunities every single night, and I think that has made it difficult on him.
I'm aware of that. I think for our team having he and Turkoglu as two of our better players, we don't really have much of an option other than to play him at the four, and I think he's handled it very, very well but it's difficult.

Q. Have you ever seen Kobe play with such defiance? And do you think there is an overall better player in the NBA?
STAN VAN GUNDY: I think I've seen Kobe play with that kind of will and stuff a lot, too many times actually. More than I would like. So I've seen that a lot out of him. I think he's one of the more, I don't know the word, willful players in the league. He's got an extremely strong will and competitiveness to him.
And I stay out of the questions about who's the best player in the NBA. I just stay out of those because -- what I always say, and I mean it sincerely, you throw out three or four names you think belong in there or two names or whatever, I always say you pick first and I'll take the leftovers. Kobe and LeBron, you want to pick between them, you pick first, I'll take second and be okay.

Q. What impact do you think that kind of will has on the Lakers?
STAN VAN GUNDY: I think it has a tremendous impact. I think when your best player is not only playing that well but playing that tough and that competitively, I think it just puffs up everybody else with confidence. You know, and I think you see it a lot in this league, players gain their own confidence based off of somebody else. And what it does, when he's playing as well as he did last night, there's really no pressure on anybody else. You shoot the ball freely, you play freely, because if you hit a bad stretch, you'll just go back to him and he'll take care of everything.
When people talk about making their teammates better, I think a lot of times people simply focus on the aspect of drawing double teams, creating shots, things like that. I think that's part of it. But I think more importantly is what you're talking about, the confidence everybody else gets. I mean, they know their team is going to be in good position to win, there's not the pressure on them to produce and things like that, and so they play freer and play better.
I think that's more than anything what the great players do to make their teammates better is they take the pressure off of them.

Q. Can you just talk about what the Lakers do defensively with Bynum and what challenges they present for Dwight? And how you go about getting Dwight rolling Game 2?
STAN VAN GUNDY: Well, I think they're going to make it tough to get Dwight rolling. We got him the ball a lot last night, but they're always coming with another guy. I thought he forced a couple of plays, he made some good passes out, where we couldn't make shots. And when you're not making shots out of that, then obviously the team is coming more and more and more. I think if you make some shots, then obviously you force teams to adjust and he gets a little bit more room.
We are looking at some subtle adjustments to try to get our spacing maybe a little bit better for him. But if somebody wants to bring a second guy, they can bring a second guy. And Dwight is not a guy that's going to turn away from the double-team and shoot his fadeaway jumper. So double-teams can keep him or limit his shot attempts and things, from that standpoint.
I think in Dwight's case, he has to bring a higher energy and intensity level. I think the thing that people can never match with Dwight when he's really going after it is they can't match his athleticism, his combination of athleticism and strength. I don't think there's ever been a time where I've thought somebody had him overmatched in those areas, and I think if you look at the game last night, he did not play with great energy, he did not run the court. He wasn't playing at a fast pace, really working to seal and get the ball. He played as a sort of walk-to-the-block, set-up-down-there, low-post guy. So when they come and double, they take away a lot of his effectiveness. He's got to get on the move more, use a lot more of his athleticism, play on the run.
And then I think in general, their size, always a huge factor for them, their size and length, and I think it bothered us last night, not only on Dwight. I think they deflected a lot of passes, we threw a lot of passes off target. They contested shots at the rim. I think, we showed our guys film today, we got by their first line of defense on several occasions and drove the ball and ended up taking very difficult shots against their size, where we probably should have made an extra pass.
But their size was a huge factor last night and something that we really need to adjust to and make better decisions and better plays. But I thought their big guys were all active, and that combined with their size I thought made it very, very difficult on us offensively.

End of FastScripts

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