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NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: SUNS v LAKERS

May 17, 2010

Alvin Gentry

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Game One

Los Angeles Lakers Â– 128
Phoenix Suns - 107

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.
COACH GENTRY: You've got to give them credit. They played great I thought, I thought one of the best games I've seen them play in the playoffs this season, really. They shot the ball well. Kobe kind of controlled the whole game.
I thought that we could have withstood the game that he had because the shots that he was making, you can't do anything about. It doesn't matter. The only other option you have is to go double-team him right away before he gets over half court. But when he's making his jumper like that, there's not a whole lot you can do about it.
We've just got to do a better job, I think, on the points in the paint. We can't give up 56 points in the paint, and then we've got to go a better job on Gasol, and then I thought Lamar Odom was really kind of the difference in the game. He came in, and we had a nice little start, but I thought Lamar came in and really kind of changed the whole game. He finished with 19 points, 19 rebounds. He dominated the boards, and I just thought he gave them that extra burst of energy to kind of get them over the hump.

Q. Is there anything you can do to address that points in the paint problem, or is it just their size and it is what it is?
COACH GENTRY: No, but to be honest with you guys, it wasn't exactly the post-up plays and the big guys. It was the middle drives and the perimeter players driving in the paint more so than it was -- Gasol had a great game and had some good post-up moves, but for the most part it was them breaking down our perimeter defense and driving in the paint and creating situations that way. So that's an area that I think we can get a little bit better.
And from the standpoint of just throwing over the top and scoring, they didn't really do that a whole lot against us. Lamar came up with offensive rebound after offensive rebound. But I think as you watch the tape, and we'll look at that tonight, I thought the middle drives by Kobe and by Fish and by Shannon Brown and even Farmar, I thought they got into the teeth of our defense much, much too often and too easy and that created situations where now we're kind of in rotation and that's where a lot of the points in the paint came.

Q. I'm just wondering what adjustments will you make on Kobe? He went for 40 tonight, had a big night. Anything that stands out to you this early after the game?
COACH GENTRY: I still think we can withstand the 40 that Kobe got. The way he got those points, when he's in that zone like he is tonight, there's really not a whole lot you can do about it. So we have to do a better job on the other guys. We've played them before, Kobe has had 40 before against us, and we won the game. When he's in the zone like he is tonight, there's not a whole lot you can do about it other than just completely running off a guy and trying to get the ball out of his hands, then you totally break down everything.
We've just got to do a better job on our perimeter defense, I think. We didn't do a very good job guarding the perimeter, and we got broken down way too often on the perimeter, which in turn them breaks down the interior of your whole defense.

Q. You guys were 5 for 22, 23 percent from the three-point line. Was that more just missing shots, or was it Lakers contesting --
COACH GENTRY: No. It was a combination of both. They do a good job. They do a really good job of running you off three-point shots. We have struggled some against them from the three-point line. Some of it we didn't make the shots. We had a lot of shots available to us that we didn't make. Obviously they do a good job of closing out. They're No. 1 in three-point percentage defense in the league, so they do a good job of closing out on that.

Q. What did you take away from Robin's contributions?
COACH GENTRY: Well, I mean, I thought he played well for us. I thought he did a good job. First game back in six weeks, you know, he still doesn't have his legs under him. He's a much better athlete than he showed out there tonight. But I thought he was real solid and played well, and hopefully he'll continue to get better in the series.

Q. Kobe looked really emotional out there, waving his arms a lot, and he was talking to Grant and got a technical. Did you get the impression that he was super aggressive or taking it personally?
COACH GENTRY: No, I think every time he plays somebody, he takes it personal. I mean, that's his motivation, so I didn't see anything wrong with it. I don't think he was trash talking or anything like that. He just -- he understands how important this first game is, and I just thought he played at a real, real high level.
He's one of those guys when he's playing and he's in the zone like he is tonight, you can't do a whole lot about it. I'm just disappointed in other phases of our game that we have to get better, and obviously the rebounding part and the middle drives, the perimeter defense has to get a little bit better.
They had guys that stepped up. I thought Farmar played solid for them. Artest did a good job for them. We can withstand Kobe and Pau having the games that they had, but when other guys step up, especially Lamar with 19 and 19, then that gets to be really tough, and if you add one more guy to the mix, then they're almost impossible to beat when they add that fourth guy in that plays well. We'll just have to do a better job. I can stand up here and say that the layoff helped them and hurt us, but we'll see what happens on Wednesday. We'll come back and --
One thing about our guys, they're a pretty resilient bunch, and when we go through a situation like this, we usually find a way to regroup and come back and play well. Hopefully that will happen on Wednesday.

Q. You guys got to the line, I think, 19 times in the first half. Overall do you feel like you generated enough easy points, obviously not much on the break, but even in the half court?
COACH GENTRY: Yeah, but we're not a real fastbreak team, and I think that's kind of a misnomer about our team. We've never been in the top ten in fastbreak points in the league. We play with a rhythm, and we didn't really get into that rhythm tonight. You have to give them some credit. They did a good job defensively in some areas right there. But there's also some areas where I think we'll be better on Wednesday than we were tonight.
It's just -- I don't want to take anything away from them because they played great. It's as well as I think I've seen them play in the playoffs this year, and when they're making shots and then moving the basketball like they did, it gets to be a little -- it gets to be real difficult.

Q. Kobe took the week off of practice, came out in a sleeve, didn't hit a field goal until late in the first. Did you think much maybe at the beginning, maybe there was something there the way he started with everything about him being out and talk of his knee injury?
COACH GENTRY: I have never, since he walked into the league, I don't think I've ever underestimated him. You knew at some stage he would try to take the game over. That's what he does. He's a great player. I mean, he has the focus on one area, and that's to try to win a championship, and we have to try to do a better job of trying to take one of those guys out of the game.
We've got to do something -- like I said, two of them, Pau and Kobe, are pretty consistent. We've got to take that third guy out. You know, 19 points, 19 rebounds by Lamar, those are the kind of games that really kind of get them over the hump.
I thought we were within striking distance there, and we had a couple of bad possessions. We had a chance to go into the fourth quarter where it could have been a single-digit lead, and we stepped out of bounds on the play. We've just got to do a lot better job of executing, and then we've got to do a much better job defensively of trying to slow them down. 128 points we can't defend.

Q. Was this a failure defensively of execution or attitude?
COACH GENTRY: I think our attitude was fine. We ran into a guy that is a great player. I'm pretty sure we're not the first team that he scored 40 against. I'll go back and look, but I'm pretty sure that -- not even in the playoffs do I think we're the only team that he scored 40 against.
So they had a great night. You've got to give them credit. The way we look at it, it's one game down and they've got to beat us three more times and we think we'll play better. That's the attitude that we have to have.
Thanks, guys.

End of FastScripts

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