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NBA FINALS: MAGIC v LAKERS

June 5, 2009

Rashard Lewis

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Practice Day

Q. Can you just talk about you and Hedo are so valuable for this team and last night both of you had an off-night shooting. Were those shots you normally hit and you just missed them or something it something the Lakers did?
RASHARD LEWIS: We obviously had a bad offensive night. Shots weren't falling for nobody, especially from the perimeters. We shoot a lot of threes but last night they didn't fall for some reason. You also have to give credit to the Lakers. They pretty much tried to run us off the three-point line. It seemed like they always had help defense.
They're a pretty big team. We took a lot of bad contested shots instead of moving the offense around. I don't think we moved from the defense from side to side.

Q. Now you've got Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom. What kind of challenges do they present?
RASHARD LEWIS: A little bit different challenges. Obviously Lamar Odom is pretty athletic; can play on the perimeter as well as inside. Gasol is a post-up player. I've got my work cut out with him, but he's a great pick-and-roll player, too. He can pick and pop, shoot the jumper or cut to the basket. It's not going to be as easy I don't think. I've got to pay for attention to details on the defensive end, and watching him I made a lot of mistakes on the defensive end of the floor. It seems like I was a step slow, and I can't play that way.

Q. Whenever the subject of gaudy NBA contracts come up, your name is always in the mix with them for your deal and what you got. You get questions about this stuff all the time. Do they ever get to you, these questions?
RASHARD LEWIS: No, it don't get to me at all. I've been in the league for 11 years, and I've always been criticized ever since getting drafted in the second round being in that green room. I think if anything, it just keeps the fire burning, makes me go out there and prove to a lot of people that I do belong in the NBA, and so far to me I've done a good job coming from a non-guaranteed contract to the position I'm in today. I've done something right.

Q. Stan was saying that maybe in the preseason of that first year you might have been trying to do a little bit too much.
RASHARD LEWIS: Yeah.

Q. Would you agree with that?
RASHARD LEWIS: Yeah, he's exactly right. I think coming to Orlando from Seattle, they didn't know what type of player they was getting, and I think I put a lot of pressure on myself to perform at my best, and it was only preseason. I wanted to play hard and show the city what type of player they was getting. The very first game I went out there and twisted my ankle and got injured. I think I was putting too much pressure on myself, and my mom told me just relax, do what you've been doing since you was in Seattle. Just play your game. You wouldn't be in this position today if you didn't do well in Seattle, so just go out there and play your game.
I think I just kind of relaxed, focused a bit more and let the game come to me instead of trying to force it.

Q. Could you describe how difficult this season has been at times for you, trying to carry a load of what your role is with this team, but also your concerns for your daughter and your family?
RASHARD LEWIS: Actually it was a lot more difficult last year than it was this year. I can say this year is easier for me because last year I was used to play the three position, a small forward in Seattle, and making the transition to playing a forward, a power forward, last year was a roller coaster season for me, I was up-and-down, I had to adjust to not being that No. 1 option, the guy that gets 15 to 20 shots a night. I think it was all about sacrificing because we have a good offensive team with Hedo and Dwight as well as Jameer Nelson. Sometimes it's not going to be your turn to score. You may just have to go down and do other things, rebound, defend, go after loose balls to help your team win ballgames.
But I think it's better to have options on the offensive end than just one or two that helps us win ballgames.

Q. Was it difficult to do that with all the concerns for your daughter's health? And how is she now?
RASHARD LEWIS: Most definitely during the time she was sick, it was a difficult time for me. During the season, because of the fact that family is most important, and during the time I didn't really care about the game of basketball, I didn't care if we won games, if we lost games. My main concern was my little girl because she was in and out of the hospital a lot. I had a nonchalant attitude, and Coach saw it in me, and said if I need some time off, then take it, but if I'm going to play, we need 100 percent of me being out there and participating with the team. It was tough, but now that she's healthy, I'm able to focus on the game a lot better.

Q. Yesterday Lamar Odom said about Kobe Bryant that there isn't anything he can't do. With you and your teammates with Dwight, do you have that same sort of inspiration and confidence from him, or do you have to kind of help lift him up at this point? Is he not fully at that place?
RASHARD LEWIS: Dwight is a dominant player. Just like Kobe Bryant had a great game yesterday, Dwight is capable of doing that any night. I think if you see the closing game against Cleveland, he had 40 points, as well. He carried us on his back and he can do that any given night.
Like I said, it was just a bad offensive night for us as well as on the defensive end. I don't think we did anything to go in there to put ourselves in position to win the game.
But overall I don't think anybody played to their potential on the offensive end. It happens. We had a bad game but we'll bounce back Sunday.

Q. Do you guys have to do anything to get him going, or is that on himself?
RASHARD LEWIS: I think it's on everybody. The point guard has to get us in the right positions to run the plays. I think it all starts on the defensive end. We're getting stops, run down, have cross match-ups and he's sable to seal off his man one-on-one. We're still a good half-court offensive team but we're better in transition because we have a lot of cross match-ups and that's when we can really attack their defense.

Q. How tough does Dwight take a game last night? How tough is that for him? We usually see him always smiling. Is he like that the day after or does he take these games with him for a couple days?
RASHARD LEWIS: We've all been in positions where we have bad games, but we're the type of team that responds, and I'm sure he'll respond come Sunday and have a great game. He's done it in the playoffs, he's done it during the regular season, and he knows he's going to carry us to the next level. I'm sure you'll see a different Dwight Howard, just as well as you'll see a different Rashard Lewis or Hedo Turkoglu. You'll see a whole different Magic team just because of the fact we know we was off our game.

End of FastScripts

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