|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
NBA FINALS: CELTIC v LAKERSJune 15, 2010Phil JacksonLOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Game Six Q. In an elimination game like this, do you change the amount of rope that you give each player, kind of like a manager in a Game 7 of the World Series, if a pitcher is in trouble he early he might go to another guy? Do you coach this game differently than you would a regular game? PHIL JACKSON: You know, I think that the bench performance has to prove itself. It's got to go out there. But in the same breath, benches play better on our home court than they do on the road. It's like, okay, they certainly have to have a chance to play, and if they're playing well, they'll stay. Q. As an extension of that question, with you facing your first elimination of these playoffs, did your preparation change at all? PHIL JACKSON: Well, we certainly put in some things that we'll use, if necessary. You know, we had too many situations where I thought there were isolations. I thought there were more screen rolls with Pierce than I anticipated or we anticipated as a team, and he got himself free from them. So we'll have some things that we'll make adjustments to. Q. Strategically Kobe is playing pretty far off of Rondo, but he's got a lot of time to get out on the floor and get a lot of rebounds, rebounding probably better than anyone on your squad other than Pau. Is that maybe there's too much space? PHIL JACKSON: Well, there's a certain way you play defense when Rondo is given eight, ten feet and Kobe is a help defender, so I thought we gave direct line to players, Allen, obviously Garnett got a couple lay-ups in situations where he got easy passes down the lane. So our players have to correspondingly understand that, too, so we do have that built in. But he'll be faced with different people out there. He'll have different people other than Kobe. Q. I looked at the box score from the first five games, and I did a little number crunching, Kobe shot twice as many shots as the next highest person on the team, which is Gasol, and he's also taken nearly a third of the team shots overall. I'm wondering what your thoughts are on that. PHIL JACKSON: Well, you know, in games like the last game where we got down, Kobe is going to do that. We're a team that generates a lot off of him, and I thought we did too much the first half. We looked for him too often, he didn't get going, and there was a need for the team to give him the basketball. We talked about that in our pregame today. Once he's hot, he's as hot as any player could be in the NBA, so you want to keep the ball on him. There's no doubt with that. But there's too much individual action. There's got to be more team play on the offensive end. Q. Were you surprised by Pau's effort the other night? PHIL JACKSON: No, he just never got opportunities in the first half. He was out of rhythm. Second half we tried to go to him immediately and things didn't go well with him. He had a couple shots blocked in the process. You know, so things didn't happen for him in that game. They'll be better -- it'll be better off tonight. Q. Are you curious as to how your team is going to perform tonight or do you have a strong feeling about it? PHIL JACKSON: I have a good feeling like they're going to come out and play. They're anticipating the energy that they have to have in this kind of a game. They know that they have to carry that energy. We got behind immediately to start the game the other night and had to come back a numerous amount of times. That's something we don't like to do. We've carried the first quarter every game but I think the fourth game, and so we're pretty used to coming out of the gates and playing well. Q. You mentioned that Kobe bumped his knee or something in Game 5. First half it seemed like several times he went up as if he was going to shoot and passed off. Was that by design or did that have anything to do with the knee? PHIL JACKSON: He didn't elevate over the players. They came over from the weak side and elevated over the top and couldn't get his shot off, so he had to drop it off in those situations. I did say he got retaped at halftime and came back and was much stronger for it. Q. Just offensively with Kobe, are there ways that you guys can work more to get him off the ball from the weak side or things like that? PHIL JACKSON: Yes. Q. Is that part of the plan offensively? PHIL JACKSON: Yes. Q. In what ways? PHIL JACKSON: Have him be off the ball to come get the ball. (Laughter). Q. Are you designing those sorts of plays to make it happen? PHIL JACKSON: Well, there's a lot of functioning territory that he has in our offense that we can go do. We've done a lot of things in transition off drags or what we call screen rolls in transition. You know, that's something that overplayed a little too much the other night. We'll have to help ourselves out tonight not do that. Q. Kobe was upset with the defense the other night, but you pointed out you held them to 92, which you would live with, so was the problem more the offense than the defense? PHIL JACKSON: No, you know, their offense, they were in comfort zones a lot of times, and I thought that that was what gave them a lot of shooting -- obviously they got lay-ups in transition, they got some offensive rebounds. But the big key is about keeping the team off balance, you want to do that. They were playing with control, and I thought Pierce felt very comfortable out there, Ron has kept him off edge a little bit. Garnett got comfortable a couple games ago and has stayed that way the last couple games. Those are things that we're going to have to take away. Those two guys are the ones that right now are feeling the best about their offense. Q. The Celtics have done a good job of keeping Kobe away from the basket. When Kobe was with Shaq, Shaq would drive to the basket and part the Red Sea and Kobe would follow him and dunk or lay up. Is that a dynamic that's missing from this team? PHIL JACKSON: You know, I think that we look at Drew as a big body, a guy that can set picks. He used him successfully in Games 1 and 2 and hasn't been as successful -- obviously Drew hasn't played a lot in Games 3 and 4 but he got some minutes out on the court in Game 5. But he's comfortable using Drew as a size player, which he can use to set picks and also use to trail or to follow that path. Andrew has a role for us, and that's an important aspect. Q. How would you compare the team's body language today to that before Game 6? And do you think it gives you any insight into how they'll play tonight? PHIL JACKSON: I've never felt that this team has ever dropped their dobber except after Game 2. We were very disappointed in that loss on their home court on Sunday after coming back and taking the lead and then having that poor finish in that ballgame. That's the only time I've ever seen them lose confidence in what they could do, and they bounced right back in Game 3. So I anticipate they'll have that same resilience. End of FastScripts |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|