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NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: SUNS v LAKERS


May 19, 2010


Steve Nash


LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Game Two

Lakers: 124
Suns: 112


THE MODERATOR: Questions for Steve.

Q. Can you talk about the defense? It seemed like the Lakers gave a little bit of trouble to the pick-and-roll, caused some turnovers, and how difficult it was?
STEVE NASH: Well, I think they were loading up on the pick-and-roll and putting a third defender in there. So we tried to make them pay on the weak side. Grant got a lot of open looks tonight because of that. It may not come out of the pick-and-roll, but other guys may benefit from it. So we still scored enough points tonight. I thought our offense was pretty decent.
But when they score 120-something, it is asking the offense to score way too much.

Q. Steve, just talk about offensively for you the first two games, sure you got the assists, but I would assume offensively you probably need more points right now?
STEVE NASH: Not necessarily. We're still scoring 107 --

Q. Yourself?
STEVE NASH: Like I said, we're still scoring 107, 100 points. We're getting enough points. Like I said, they're loading up on the pick-and-roll so other guys are surviving off of it. We've got to find a way to slow them down. We're scoring enough points. I think we're pretty efficient on the pick-and-rolls, whether it's myself or the roller or the guys coming in on the weak side who are left open.
So I'm not really concerned about the scoring because we're getting lots of points. But like I said, at this time of year it's asking a little bit too much of the offense. If we're going to give up 120-something every game, then, yeah, I probably do have to score more points.
But I think we've gotten still a lot of love out of our pick-and-rolls. We've just got to defend better.

Q. Coach said the Lakers did what they had to do by winning the games at home. What do you guys have to do and what is the chemistry like going back home and what do you anticipate headed back home?
STEVE NASH: Well, we've got to win. Obviously. We can't keep losing. So we're going to try to win Game 3 and try to win Game 4. So they did hold home court. We've got to now hold home court and we've also got to win on the road.
So we've definitely got our work cut out for us. But we've got a great group of guys who really stick together and hopefully we'll get some home cooking at home.

Q. Steve, you guys had some success against their sequence of screen rolls in the third quarter and then all hell broke loose when they started going inside/out. How do you fix that?
STEVE NASH: It's a tough one. They're bigger. And at times we tried to front the post. At other times we tried to double. And it seemed like other than that run where I thought we just played with a lot of energy, they were able to counter us. So we're going to have to just trying to mix it up and just having to try to play extremely hard and maybe we have to take some chances.
Thus far they've been making us pay. And the other guys have been making shots. So they've made us pay for doubling or paying too much attention to Kobe's screen and roll or Pau's post up.
Have to give them credit. They've made a lot of shots and they've made it difficult for us no matter what scheme we've thrown at them defensively.

Q. What does having a healthy Robin Lopez do for your team?
STEVE NASH: It certainly helps. It would be an even taller task obviously if we didn't have him. They're already a lot bigger than us. To have some size it really helps us for stretches. So he's really important. And I think he's doing a fantastic job, considering how difficult it is to come back from a bulging disk this quickly.

Q. What effect do you think Farmar had on the first few minutes of the fourth quarter?
STEVE NASH: I can't really remember, to be honest. But they're all doing a great job. They've all played really well for two nights.

Q. You know about Pau's versatility on offense particularly. What's most difficult in handling what he can do?
STEVE NASH: He's extremely long. He's able to go both ways in the post. He's a good shooter and passer for a big guy he can look over the defense. He can look over double teams. So he's extremely versatile. He can put the ball on the floor. He can make plays at the same time he can score going both ways in the post. So he's a terrific player.

Q. Steve, Jason Richardson goes for 27, you guys usually win the game. You're like 29-4 when the J-Rich gets off. Why tonight? He scores 27 and you still lose by 12.
STEVE NASH: We gave them 120-something points. So we haven't found a way to slow them down yet. And I think if we're going to beat them, we've got to find a way to slow them down, not let 'em shoot in the 50s every game, and not give up 120-something points every night.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Steve.

End of FastScripts




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