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NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: SUNS v LAKERSMay 19, 2010Pau GasolLOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Game Two Lakers: 124 THE MODERATOR: Questions for Pau Gasol. Q. Nash just talked about your versatility in offense. Are you going to take what the defense gives you when you get the ball inside if they're going to come at you passing, if not try to go get your own thing? PAU GASOL: Yeah, you have to read what they do to you and just make the right play. They try to front most of the game. They allowed entry pass a couple times. And then you read if the double team comes. If it doesn't, then you attack. That's pretty much what we tried to do tonight. Obviously we did a better job, very good job in the fourth quarter of it. Q. Pau, was there a concerted effort to get it to you in the fourth quarter there? PAU GASOL: Once I was being effective and just finishing plays, obviously we just continue to go to it, because it was working pretty well for us. Q. The Suns, their bread and butter is the pick-and-roll, what they get off of it. Seems the Lakers had some success to guard it enough to win these games. Can you talk about how the Lakers approach it and what you guys are doing that some other teams weren't able to do? PAU GASOL: Well, obviously they run it a lot. So it's a big challenge to play right and play it pretty much every single play down the court. A lot of drags and a lot of screens and different angles and positions. Steve is so good at picking the right paths and just handling the ball. So we just try to be aggressive on the ball, just making sure we're up on the screens, we're not playing it soft. And then we jam the lane to not allow Amare to have wide-open looks or wide-open dunks, just force the ball to move and make sure we're on it. So the passes are not right on the money. Q. In these two games you're averaging 126 points and 58 percent shooting. What do you attribute that to? PAU GASOL: The pace of the game is a little higher, a little faster. Then we're also being very effective, shooting the ball very well. Moving the ball I think really, really well. Our bench is playing really, I think at a high level. And I think we're all stepping up. So with all that together, we're putting some pretty good offensive efforts. Q. Putting aside all the commentary between Amare and Lamar, is there from a basketball standpoint a concerted effort to put pressure on him defensively, whether in space or in the post, just attack him in that way? PAU GASOL: Well, he's a very good player. And offensively he can really hurt you. So you've got to be on him as much as possible and try to challenge him as much as possible. Contesting shots. Just make sure he doesn't get wide-open looks, down the lane or facing up on the mid-range. So, yeah, you've got to be aggressive with the kind of players that -- Q. On defense, making him work defensively? PAU GASOL: Yes, obviously. And obviously you have to make sure you're aggressive and make him work on that end of the floor, too, whether it's Lamar or myself or whoever he's guarding, pretty much. Q. So many weapons in the Laker arsenal. Is it frustrating the Suns scoring so many points but stopping you from scoring? Has to be frustrating for the Suns. PAU GASOL: I imagine it's got to be frustrating to give up 120-some points in the last two games and I think they played and shot the ball pretty well, and they played pretty well offensively, but still hasn't been enough. So I imagine it must be frustrating so far. But we've got to continue to play better and stronger, and we understand it's going to be harder in Phoenix. So it's going to take a much bigger mindset or focus to go there and be successful and put the type of games and wins that we put in here. Q. With the team making shots from the outside, can you kind of explain just how the defensive dynamic from Phoenix then changes things with that, just knowing that you guys are both effective from the inside and out? PAU GASOL: Right. Well, if our shooters make shots like they have been, they force their defenders to be aware of them and not be able to be in the lane so much. So it opens -- it opens things up. It opens the floor. So it creates more space for us to penetrate and to go to the post and be a little more effective there. So guys are shooting the ball really well. And that's always a plus, because then they don't really know what to do, whether allow the outside shots, which are 3-pointers and hurt or just make sure they play one-on-one on the post or on penetrations and they stay with the shooters, which we have been successful also. So let's see what goes on Game 3. So far we've been successful. And we want to continue to be that way. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Pau. End of FastScripts |
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