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NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: SUNS v LAKERS


May 18, 2010


Phil Jackson


LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Practice Day

Q. Coach, last night you mentioned you were, I guess, somewhat surprised at how well you played.
COACH JACKSON: Well, perhaps the shooting. Shooting percentage we did. (Indiscernible). Sometimes you're off that long, the plays helped that along a little bit. We had the shots we expected.

Q. Were you able to go from that performance to --
COACH JACKSON: I think so. I think they'll spend some time going over the video see what they can see.

Q. (Indiscernible)?
COACH JACKSON: I would. I hope we can. (Indiscernible) we start at the game. Second half we came out. We didn't have as much activity as before.

Q. Lamar, covering for him, so to speak?
COACH JACKSON: More so. We'd like to see it.

Q. The last night, you turned a corner (indiscernible)?
COACH JACKSON: Well, let's just say it's a game-by-game basis right now. That goes a long way with what we do in the playoffs. It's the focus of the team. Give them shots. Want them to be prudent and just use good judgment on the types of shots he wants to take.
Our offense, on the clock, going the pace he wants.

Q. [Question about pressure and responsibilities]?
COACH JACKSON: Well, I can remember a situation back in the '80s. Chicago Bulls, assistant coach. We had a lot of pressure playing against a variety of teams. Tough to match up with some of the speed and pressure that they were putting put on the guards.
The Jets win it at that point. Argued for the guards. We eventually took Michael Jordan out as point guard and assist against the Detroit Pistons in the finals in the East. And kept the amount of pressure that's put on point guards sometimes it really relieves the pressure when you have two guards that can either bring the ball up or operate the offense on either side of the floor. Use automatic, since we use in those situations.

Q. [Question about Lamar] given his performance yesterday, how does he sustain that level?
COACH JACKSON: I think he's just aggressive when he came in, tried to peel out where he could help us in the game. Hit a couple of open shots and everything started opening up for him, drives and offensive rebounds. The whole game came forward. That's a lot of times the way basketball is, guy starts playing well and the ball falls in his hands and certainly did show what we can do.

Q. Lost seven in a row. Can you put a finger on this?
COACH JACKSON: At that particular time we were struggling with choice of shots and defensive transition. And about, the tentativeness that requires. If you're open, it doesn't always mean that that's the shot you shot. There's a reason you're open. It's the clock, the 24 seconds at the time that we have the basketball. So we can reformat our defense and try to stop a team at the other end is really the essence of what playoff basketball is about.
So a lot of times using the clock, getting a shot, a good shot, and then recovery and being back on defense has really been our focus. I thought when we started doing that correctly and then our game started to come together as a team.

Q. Looked like you guys were a mismatch (indiscernible) do you feel like you can work that to your advantage?
COACH JACKSON: They did a good job denying us the ball, blowing in the post a number of times. We had to work a little bit harder to get in there. Some of the times it was risky passes. We were successful in getting into the post, but not as often as we like. We'll try to do that better.

Q. What about off the dribble, just on the screen, did that work the way you would have liked?
COACH JACKSON: Yes.

Q. [Question about the pick-and-roll and defense]?
COACH JACKSON: I thought the first half we weren't where we wanted to be, assisting the guards in the screen roll, work on that and be in better placement so we can slow that down a little bit. If they can move the ball to the mismanagement they get off that roll then a lot of times they're very successful on the 3-point shooting.

Q. What adjustments, do you have any idea?
COACH JACKSON: I imagine last night, after watching their series versus Portland, particularly, they made an adjustment in the series and they also came to double team, when we got the ball. And I anticipate they'll be a little quicker to get to Kobe, try to get the ball out of his hands.

Q. [Question about Game 5]?
COACH JACKSON: We do know how to do that. Hopefully we can handle that situation and the pressure when we move the ball.

Q. Has there been any distraction with the team due to the fact of the issues that come about, the whole Arizona law and the comment yesterday?
COACH JACKSON: No. And I don't think there's anything going on. There's nothing unusual. I did drive out last night. I noticed a group of maybe 30 or so people that were waiting for people to drive out, heard some comments as I drove by.
Other than that, nothing significant.

Q. (Off microphone).
COACH JACKSON: Well, luck is part of the game. You make your own luck, we say. That's what most people like to say. Lamar had a shot that went in early. That early shot, first shot went in, the second shot he shot went in. Consequently, he started feeling good about his game and things evolved there.

Q. How do you personally --
COACH JACKSON: I think being aggressive is probably one of the first orders of the game and not overly aggressive so you create problems, but aggressive so that you're carrying the threat of the shot, seeing how the game goes, that's what we like to tell our players, is you see the ball, when you carry forward the shot, everything else follows behind very well. You see the basket. You see the open man. You can make adjustments. So I think that's one of the primary factors.

End of FastScripts




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