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NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: SUNS v LAKERS

May 22, 2010

Alvin Gentry

PHOENIX, ARIZONA: Practice Day

COACH GENTRY: Well, I thought from 12 to 5, 12 to eight.

Q. Defensively, what more -- what can you guys do differently than you've been doing in the last two games?
COACH GENTRY: We'll try to change some things. Obviously we've got to get them -- it's not so much the bigs. The other night obviously Pau had a great fourth quarter,.
But it's not so much the bigs. We've still got to do a better job of being able to contain the ball a little bit, because what happens is that when the perimeter guys break down our defense and get into the lane, then our bigs have to step up, and obviously when you don't have a body on Pau, you don't have a body on Bynum, that kind of releases everything and breaks down the core of your defense. So we've got to be a little bit better in those areas.

Q. Were you as concerned about Bynum as you were at the beginning of the series?
COACH GENTRY: He's still a factor. He's a big, long guy. He hasn't played a ton of minutes. But he's also two for two, five for five. So the more minutes he plays, obviously the more concerned you'd be about him. But Pau and Kobe are just two guys -- they're difficult to guard.
They're a reason that they're averaging what they're averaging in the playoffs. But it's going to be tough to guard against everybody they play. We have to do a better job. Artest has really stepped up and played well for them and Farmar has played great off the bench for them.
You can't have five or six guys play great for that team and they're not going to lose. So we've got to find a way to slow a couple of guys down and then we have to raise our level of play some also.

Q. You had two days to think about it, how did you react? How did you get --
COACH GENTRY: I would say to you guys what everybody said to us when we won two games at home against San Antonio. All you guys have done is what you were supposed to do.
So they were supposed to win their two home games and they've done that. So now we've got to come back and we've got to try to win Game 3. That's what we've got to do.

Q. Are you overanalyzing trying to do too much?
COACH GENTRY: No, I don't think so. Because we know -- you have to play extremely well to beat them. Everybody's talking about their level of play, and they go back and they look at the Oklahoma City series.
Well, they've changed completely since then. Their level of players has been elevated since the Oklahoma City Series.
You have to play very good basketball to beat them. We look at the game we had, 100 points with nine minutes to go in the game. That's a little more difficult to do now with the level of play that they have.

Q. What do you notice the biggest difference with the Lakers today; you say it's obviously different from the first round?
COACH GENTRY: I think it's all around. I think Kobe is healthier than he's ever been. He won't say that to anyone. He would never say he was hurt in the first place. That's not who he is.
But I think he's been pretty banged up. And I think that the week off gave him a chance to recuperate and feel real good about it.
Unfortunately for us, we were the guys that played him after they had a week off. I just think they're just playing better.
Everyone's playing better. Farmar has been huge off the bench for them and done a good job for them. Artest, shooting poorly, and we decided to try to make him make shots, and that's exactly what we did.
That's what you do as a coach. You try to figure out where you think they may have a weakness. You have to give them credit. He stepped up and made shots for them and played good basketball.
So, to me, we tried to do some things. I thought we did a good job on Kobe, but it's almost like being at the dike. You stick your finger in and plug up one hole and water comes out of another. So we've just got to find a way to have a whole lot of fingers, I guess.

Q. (Question about J.C. scoring 23 or more points)?
COACH GENTRY: I'm not real sure. I'm really not. I'm not sure why our record is so good with him scoring 20. I do know when he's involved offensively it seems to get other guys involved.
So we try -- obviously when you look at the record, we make sure that he's trying to -- we try to get him going early in the game, and he's played really good basketball for us.
He's had a terrific year, had a terrific playoff series for us. And will continue. I thought he played well the other night. We just couldn't quite get over the hump. We went into the fourth quarter in a good situation, and then we had three consecutive turnovers. And it's just not anything you can do against this team. You have to play really good, solid basketball to have a chance to win.

Q. When you say get everybody involved, what does it do for the low post?
COACH GENTRY: I think what it does is that if you're making shots like he is, then it stretches the floor. When it stretches the floor, it obviously opens up the low post.
So we have to do a better job of getting Amare the ball. But you've got to give them credit also; they do a good job of taking avenues or lanes away from him. But he's very capable of being a jump shooter. We'll try to do some things also to put him in a position where he can get the ball to the basket.

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