	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 WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: SUNS v LAKERS

May 19, 2010

Alvin Gentry

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Game Two

Lakers: 124
Suns: 112

COACH GENTRY: Well, what can you say? We are just having a hard time -- we can't slow them down. I thought we played well offensively, but every time we tried to make an adjustment to slow them down, they go somewhere else.
And, you know, you do a great job on Kobe, and, you know, I thought we did. Then they go to Pau and we double team Pau and there's Lamar, and we get it out of Lamar's hand and Jordan Farmar makes shots. And they're the reason they're the world champs. There's a good reason they're the world champs.
But we'll keep plugging away. We'll keep trying. We're not going to give up, and we'll see what happens.

Q. Coach, you guys fought back, got it all, tied it up at 90 at the end of the third quarter. Talk about what happened between the third and fourth quarter and how the Lakers --
COACH GENTRY: We started off turning the ball over. Turned the ball over three straight times. And they went down and got baskets. And we never really got any control after that. We made a couple of baskets here and there. But we just -- we can't afford to turn it over, especially on three straight possessions. So that hurt us.

Q. Coach, after Game 1 you said that the key will be to stop guys like Lamar like running a test from the offensive side and what they can -- in offense. Both had great offensive games today. Was it something that's kind of adjusted during the game, those guys?
COACH GENTRY: What happens if you try to start to double team Kobe and try to get the ball out of his hands, you know, he's a very unselfish guy. I mean he really trusts his teammates now. And when you do that he finds open guys. And he gets you in rotation. When you get in rotation, they've got players that's very capable of making shots.
So it's pick your poison with these guys. I mean, you look at the stat sheet there's like 27, 21, 28, you know, I mean, it's just -- I mean it gets to be real difficult. But we gotta continue to try to find an answer. That's why we're here.
You know, no one just let us get to the Western Conference Finals. We earned the right to be here. And we'll continue to try to plug away, and we'll continue to try to find answers on how to get them stopped enough that we can win a game. Our goal right now is to win Game 3, that's the only thing on our mind.

Q. Coach, you had some success with the speed lineup with Jared at the 4. Can you talk about that? And also at least a smaller lineup, but maybe it wasn't the 4, you tell me.
COACH GENTRY: It was.

Q. You seemed perplexed.
COACH GENTRY: No.

Q. Is that a lineup that -- talk about the success with that, and also was that a lineup that you could try against a bigger lineup if they had Bynum in there?
COACH GENTRY: What we did is that we were good offensively, but it makes us a very small team. And with Lamar in the game as a 4, we either have to have Jared or Grant Hill guarding him, and obviously that's a big advantage for them.
You know, he's so used to, with his wing span and the way he rebounds, playing great, I thought that lineup was good for us offensively, and that's the lineup that got us back in the game.
But we have to be able to have our guys step up. Channing is going to have to step up for us, that's the bottom line. We need him on the floor. He's a good post defender for us, but he's got to be able to make some shots.

Q. Fourth quarter they started going inside/out again. Where was the breakdown defensively for you guys?
COACH GENTRY: It wasn't really a breakdown. They just do such a good job. They throw the ball in. They force you to double. You don't double, then you've got Pau in there whose footwork is probably second only to Tim Duncan's as far as a post player. So we had to try to play them straight up. Played them straight up. Pau had some success.
The one time we went to double him. He turned it over. Next time we went to double him finds an open guy that makes a 3. You have to pick your poison. As I said, we just have to take a look at the tape tonight and maybe we'll decide that we'll let Kobe get 80 and try to guard the other guys.
So we'll keep -- we're not about to give up. And, you know, when everybody sits up here, you know when we won our two home games against San Antonio, everybody just said, well, the only thing they've done is what they're supposed to do. So the only thing they've done is what they're supposed to do. We'll go with that.

Q. It seemed like at least you tried a couple different ways to throw in an extra body here or there at Kobe couple different times. First of all, how do you think that worked and do you also think you need to maybe get Robin more minutes in one way or another?
COACH GENTRY: You know, Robin did a good job for us. And that's something that we'll take a look at. But, you know, you look at Kobe's line. He's 8 for 18. Has 21 points. But then when you do that, he has 13 assists. Guys, there's a reason he's the best basketball player in the world.
He's not going to force things. He doesn't do that anymore. And so if you ask me if we did a good job on him we took him from 40 to 21. So that's a good job. But when you add in the 13 assists, that's 26 more points.
So you're looking at 47 is the way we look at it. So as I said, there's a lot of things that we've got to take a look at. A lot of things we've got to make decisions on. But for us, you know, they won their two home games, now we get to go home and try to find a way to win the third game. That's where our emphasis is on winning the third game.

Q. You had talked or not talked but you successfully did some post fronting in the third quarter as well with that smaller lineup. That kind of fell apart a little bit as the game moved on. Is that something you can return to if you get the rotations behind it or do you need to throw different looks at them?
COACH GENTRY: We've got to throw different looks, because we did front the posts and then they went to what they call solo, which is posting up Pau, and there's a lot of action on the weak side. And they were able to throw over. We got a smaller guy trying to rotate in. So they had some success with that. We've just got to keep changing up and hopefully they won't shoot as well in our building as they shoot here.
But we want to make it a long series. So the way we've got to do that is we've got to win Game 3. That's the only thing we're worried about right now, what do we have to do, what kind of adjustments we can make to win Game 3.

Q. Grant Hill, comments?
COACH GENTRY: Well, he played great. You know, he worked his butt off on Kobe and does the best job that he possibly can. He was good offensively when we played him as a 4-man and he spread the floor and thought he did a great job offensively. And you know, I just know that every night you get the maximum effort from him.
I never have a complaint. Even when he doesn't play well, you never have a complaint because you know he's giving you everything that he has.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297