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NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: SUNS v LAKERS

May 17, 2010

Phil Jackson

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Game One

Los Angeles Lakers Â– 128
Phoenix Suns - 107

COACH JACKSON: Well, you know, this is a surprise for us. We thought this was going to be a close game, and we were able to jump away from them a little bit in the third quarter. Kobe had an outstanding night. There were some guys that played great tonight. Pau played a fine game and so did Lamar. We got some help off the bench.

Q. Kobe looked really aggressive. Was that part of the plan, or was that Grant Hill bumping him or was Kobe just ready for this?
COACH JACKSON: Well, we talked about being aggressive obviously and coming out and trying to carry it and they beat us to the punch right off the bat, got a little seven-point lead there in the first quarter. Lamar came in and kind of gave us an added boost. Kobe carried a lot of the offense tonight. There's no doubt.

Q. Does Kobe look like he's kind of taking this personally?
COACH JACKSON: Yeah, I don't know about that, but I would say that he was going to shoulder the game on his -- he was going to take it on.

Q. Is this how you envisioned your game playing on the inside, and if this is what you can do without a big contribution from Andrew, what are the possibilities if you guys are at full strength inside?
COACH JACKSON: Well, we need him defensively. I think that's a big part of it is rebounding, defensive, offensive rebounds. You know, guys that makes their defense have to hover, so they have to control that paint. After the game he said he didn't feel quite up to his normal, and that's obvious for us. But we were able to survive it actually without him having a big contribution tonight.

Q. Kobe sat out the whole week. You would think that having a week off, things would seem to get better, but it seemed to get worse. What exactly was this past week like for him, and was there a major concern? He had the knee sleeve on going into the game.
COACH JACKSON: No. He's been very optimistic through the whole week. He felt like he got exactly what he had to have, the amount of rest and the amount of shooting that he had to have. He did eliminate practices, but he took some shooting practice out there and stayed on top of what we were trying to get done in practice. He was attentive to it and I thought involved.
Yeah, we were concerned that maybe his shooting wouldn't be as keen or everything wouldn't be -- his reactive time was going to be a little bit off, but it wasn't.

Q. Can you talk a little bit about what it means to the team when Lamar had that big a game that early on, sort of setting a tone that quickly?
COACH JACKSON: Well, it jump started us, no doubt about it. It got us started that first quarter and really got us into the ballgame quick. His rebounding the second half was very instrumental.

Q. What impressed you the most in this big victory over Phoenix?
COACH JACKSON: Well, I would say that the amount of points we scored, obviously. We're not that high powered an offensive team. We're in the lowly 100s as an average team, not in the 110s like the Phoenix Suns, but the pace, we got involved in the pace and kept playing and got some easy baskets toward the end of the game.

Q. One of Phoenix's strengths was their bench. It seemed like Lamar was able to carry that whole second unit, and you guys were able to turn it into a strength tonight. Can you talk about that.
COACH JACKSON: Yeah, they got some open looks, some of their guys, Frye, Dudley, they're three-point shooters. That was one of the things that we were able to hold them down a little bit in that area even though defensively I wasn't totally pleased with the game.

Q. The consensus was the team would struggle in Utah or struggle this first game after the long break. The way they're playing right now, is this surprising to you?
COACH JACKSON: Yes, I would say it's pleasing, no doubt about it. Maybe -- I think their attentiveness has been great. I think their focus has been very good. They're trying to do things that we're trying to get operated out there on the floor, so those things are good. I think we're taking good quality shots a lot of the times, so that helps.

Q. It's kind of unusual for you to leave Kobe in with the lead at the start of the fourth quarter at home. What went into that decision?
COACH JACKSON: Well, they left Richardson out there and put him at the three spot, and I know that's a high-powered unit. Barbosa, Dragic and Richardson can really score points. And with Frye out there as an added three-point shooter, we knew that lead was not that safe, and so we wanted to carry some of that momentum into the fourth.

Q. We know that Phoenix shot the three ball the best in the regular season, tonight not so much. Was it more what you had to do or did they just miss shots?
COACH JACKSON: I think mostly they missed shots. They had a good look. They were a couple times we kept them off balance some of their three-point shooters, but for the most part I think they'll be back on beam come Wednesday night.

Q. What adjustments are you anticipating by the Suns for Game 2?
COACH JACKSON: Well, I watched their Portland series. I saw them double-team Brandon Roy almost immediately when he caught the ball a lot of times. I wouldn't be surprised if they tried to do that with Kobe and get him out of the ball. He was extremely aggressive tonight and made some things happen for us.

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