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NBA FINALS: CELTIC v LAKERS

June 13, 2010

Phil Jackson

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS: Game Five

Los Angeles Lakers 86
Boston Celtics 92

PHIL JACKSON: They broke the game open in the third quarter, and it was a struggle for us to get ourselves back into that ballgame. We came back at the end of the third and narrowed the margin, but sequences of plays, turnovers, a couple turnovers by Kobe and run-outs created that 10-point gap at the end in which we had to really struggle to get back in the game.
You know, Ron had an opportunity, an unusual situation - Fish elevated, beat Garnett to the ball on a tip, which is kind of unusual, and they weren't ready for the run-out. But we couldn't make the play on that.
Kobe struggled the first half. The second half I thought he was his dynamic self again and got us back and going.

Q. The effort in the third period looked pretty ragged. I think the Celtics scored on 12 of their first 13 possessions. When they made it, they either made it or rebounded and made it. You guys didn't seem to touch rebounds for about six minutes.
PHIL JACKSON: I agree.

Q. Is there any way to account for that, or what were you saying?
PHIL JACKSON: Well, we called a time-out and got into their face a little bit about how we got ourselves on the wrong side of people and gave up lay-ups. I know they were shooting a high percentage, but it gets that way when you shoot lay-ups in this game.

Q. Generally what do you attribute the defensive breakdowns to? It seemed like they were able to get what they wanted, especially in the first half.
PHIL JACKSON: If I'm not mistaken they scored 92 points, right? We'll live with that, and we'll come back and play that game again regardless of what they shot. That sequence at the start of the third quarter didn't demoralize our guys. We kept coming back and coming in the ballgame. They had their run. We know they're going to have a run. And as I told the players before the game, this team is going to shoot well in one of these games. They haven't shot yet on their home court, so they're going to have a game where they shoot well. You just have to hang with them.

Q. What was going on with Pau out there? He was 4 for 11, a late put-back. Seemed like he was getting a lot of shots blocked, too. What was going on with him?
PHIL JACKSON: He didn't have a lot of opportunities in the first half, and in the second half it looked like he broke away, went by Garnett, got to the front of the hoop, and he blocked it from behind. He had another one blocked. You know, until I see the edit, I can't make a comment on what happened out there, whether he was tentative or whether he had good defensive plays made against him. I thought Garnett made a couple good defensive plays.

Q. You're so big on team work, how did you think about using Kobe and kind of eliminating everybody else in the third quarter?
PHIL JACKSON: Well, he's the kind of guy you ride a hot hand, that's for sure.

Q. So you had no problem with that?
PHIL JACKSON: We were waiting for him to do that, and he came in at halftime and got his ankle retaped again and went out there and found a rhythm on the game.
You know, other than that, you look at the assists, we had 12; they had 21. That's a big differential in a game like this. It's a struggle.

Q. What's your mentality going into these two elimination games? You haven't had an elimination game in these playoffs, what do you tell the team? How much do you use Andrew Bynum? What's your mentality going into 6 and 7?
PHIL JACKSON: Well, you know, if you look at it, they've come home and carried the 3-2 lead back. It's basically home court, home court. Now we're going back to home court to win it. That's the way it's supposed to be, isn't it? Unfortunately we couldn't get this win here but we got the one to count to bring us back home.
Sorry I didn't answer your question on that, but that's as good as I'll do.

Q. You said this week that Kobe has to play better in order for you guys to win. Over these past few games do you think he's gotten better against the defense? The Celtics have kind of been up in his chest.
PHIL JACKSON: Yeah, he was brimming with confidence in the second half. He felt like he had some things that he felt comfortable doing, and we found a way to do it. I thought he had good position in the first half, it just didn't look like he could get up and elevate and get the shots he wanted and missed some easy shots for him.

Q. Was his inability to elevate because of the ankle or because of the defense?
PHIL JACKSON: No, I thought he really -- it was just a lack of getting up over the other shot. He got his ankle retaped and came back and played well.

Q. Pierce has been relatively quiet other than a quarter or two. Today it was pretty consistent four quarters, a lot of energy. Can you talk about the difficulty Pierce can give not just your team but any team.
PHIL JACKSON: Well, you know, Paul is a very deliberate ballplayer, and when he's comfortable out there, he can be very difficult to guard. He's got a step-back, he's got a nice shot that he takes off the dribble. His post-up game is good. There's a lot of things that he has as weapons out there. He had Ron guessing out there for much of the game. I thought Ron finally got a little bit of a defensive game against him in the fourth quarter. He was in foul trouble, Luke came out and gave a hand at it, but I thought Ron finally got a little feel for it and Paul missed a couple for us.

Q. As a coach, how do you go about dealing with the psychological equation of it being an elimination game with a team that recently eliminated you, like in terms of that part of it?
PHIL JACKSON: I don't know how recent that is. That's two years. I guess that's recent, huh?

Q. Fairly.
PHIL JACKSON: Fairly recent. Well, it doesn't feel like it. I thought we had a spirited locker room at the end of our session there. We felt like we came away with a couple things that didn't happen for us, an air ball shot that went their direction, a run-out at a segment where we tried to get a backcourt violation. They had a couple things fall into place and we felt pretty good about our comeback and the way we played at the end of the game. We come away with a play that could have been a three-point play and see what would happen, but we didn't get anything out of it.
We're upbeat about going into this game.

Q. You're still dealing with the uncertainty with Andrew, how do you go forward with that?
PHIL JACKSON: You know, more than anything else, Andrew was out of rhythm in the game. I think he'll feel much more comfortable getting back and playing. He's really only played limited minutes since Tuesday night, so we anticipate that he'll have some opportunity to kind of get himself out there, shoot the ball a little bit and give us more than just a big body in the sixth game.

Q. Would you say that the sheer effort was a factor with what happened in the third quarter? And if so, is that acceptable in a game like this?
PHIL JACKSON: No, you know, I think it was -- I thought they used position very well in that quarter. They got guys off line, as we say in the game, instead of playing -- basketball is a pretty simple game. You try and stay between the basket and your man, and we had three situations where they displaced our man and had some easy baskets, and I thought they did a really good job of passing the ball from Rondo, Garnett, Allen, et cetera. I don't think it was lack of effort as much as being prepared for what they thought, what they could do when they came out.

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