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NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: SUNS v LAKERS

May 24, 2010

Grant Hill

PHOENIX, ARIZONA: Practice Day

Q. Eye, nose, how do you describe it (indiscernible)?
GRANT HILL: You know, I think being able to just focus in on what's at hand. He's done it twice here in big games and (indiscernible). And obviously he's in some discomfort, but to go up there and knock down some free throws and execute on offense.
I think we would have been surprised seeing him go out of the game. So he's fine. He'll wear a Friday the 13th mask, mask, little Ginobili tape, he'll be ready to go.

Q. The shoot-around with Channing, can you talk a little bit about what it's going to take for them to bust out of this right now?
GRANT HILL: Just relax. Having a little shooting drill, just talking trash, having fun. And sometimes you put the weight of the world on you, on your shoulders, and you've just got to go out there and have fun, smile. And just play. Focus on everything but the shooter.
I think he's due for a game. Hopefully it will be tomorrow night.

Q. (Off microphone)?
GRANT HILL: Robin, the thing that impresses me the most is the fact that he was out four to six weeks, and then to come back and, really, in all three games, he's played well. He's gotten better in each one.
We had a practice -- we started to set out, but played some full court in San Antonio between Games 3 and 4. And I think we thought, wow, he's not ready, it's a long way before he's ready to come back. But he's got his rhythm. He's worked hard.
I think you see what we've been seeing all year in practice. He's got a touch around the basket. He can shoot. And I think in time he'll be an All Star. We really have that much confidence in him as he continues to grow and develop. But right now, we just need him to continue to play big, continue to finish. Make plays for us, be big on defense and just do what he's been doing.

Q. (Indiscernible question about San Antonio)?
GRANT HILL: Well, his conditioning, his timing, when you're out for a period of time. When you're used to going every day, you take a week off, it throws your rhythm off a little bit. But you throw that, you combine that with the fact that he had an injury and something serious with regards to his back, you know, I think there was a little bit of hesitancy. He was a little unsure. Didn't have the confidence, didn't have the strength in his legs.
But he's worked extremely hard and he looks almost better than he looked before he got hurt.

Q. When he's in there making an impression, does that make it easier for you to go attack the glass and get rebounds?
GRANT HILL: Yeah, (indiscernible), you know, when he's in there and he's just playing big, we're just a better team in general. And we have enough guys that when Lamar's rolling and J. Rich and Robin, other guys, when they're out there, you just have to find ways to contribute. But we're really good when Robin plays well.
And I think him being out there doing what he does, believe it or not, helps Amar'e out. Amar'e is able to attack and play big and not have the burden of being the big guy out there by himself.
So we just need Robin to stay healthy and continue playing.

Q. Why was (indiscernible)?
GRANT HILL: I don't know. I really don't. But it worked. It wasn't perfect. We watched film today. We saw some good things. We saw some things we need to work on. So if we're going to run it sometimes tomorrow, we gotta be better because we know they'll be better.
But for the most part, it took them a little out of their rhythm. Still scored 60 points in the second half. So there's still room for improvement. But it was effective there in the second quarter. It really got us back in the game.

Q. Is it better when they're in (indiscernible)?
GRANT HILL: You know, just continue to work. Continue to -- I thought we did a decent job. We got off to a pretty good start. We made a nice run there at the end of the first quarter. I think Alvin went to that zone to kind of throw them off rhythm. We were successful (indiscernible) . But we stuck with it.
Just gotta continue to scramble, play hard, work hard, and just stick to our principles. And they played well against our man, but they hit some tough shots. Kobe hit some tough shots, and he got off to a great start there in the fourth quarter -- or the first quarter.
But the main thing I think, just gave us some confidence. Play in the zone, whether it was because of the zone or not, just knowing, hey, we can compete, we can compete with these guys, it was big for us. The win was big for us last night and hopefully we can build on it.

End of FastScripts

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