Quotes From Players/Coaches: Game 5 - Lakers vs. Rockets 5/12

HOUSTON ROCKETS QUOTES

Coach Adelman

re: Laker adjustments?: "It was on us. We did it all to ourselves."

“We played absolutely the opposite then we did in the last game. We turned it over in the 1st half, shot it poorly. Felt we forced shots and then we got shots and we couldn’t make shots. It was totally different, it snowballed on us, they just really controlled the 2nd and 3rd quarters.”

“We were trying to play the same way we did last game. We didn’t do that, we got to the middle of the lane, we turned it over, we forced plays. We were trying to force the issue and they got their hands on the ball and they got the open court. I think they had almost 20 points at halftime from fast breaks. And we said it, if we turn it over against this team we’re going to be in trouble and that’s exactly what we did. It just fed their energy level. Like I said the 2nd and 3rd quarter was as bad as our team played in a long time.”

“I think we knew that they were going to come out with a lot more energy than they did at our place in the fourth game. I thought we turned it over, rushed it, and then when we did get shot we didn’t make anything. I thought it snowballed and got our heads down and nothing seemed to go right from that point on. Even the guys off the bench were getting looks and they couldn’t do anything. It’s just one of those games where you have to look at it, for all the good things we did in the last game, we have to look at this and find out how we’re going to turn it back around.”

“I think we’re going to respond, our team has always responded and that’s what we have to do. We know it wasn’t a very good performance in our part, we know we can play better. I’m sure they’re feeling pretty good about themselves tonight and we’ve got to get home and get ourselves ready for the next game.”


Artest

re: Bynum's effect on Lakers lineup: “I don’t know what effect anything had on us today. We had a good first couple of minutes and then we started to turn the ball over; we got a lot of turnovers early. But we are going to adjust, that is the thing with the Houston Rockets.”

re: Not having Yao: “I think it caught us by surprise last game and we just kind of picked up where we left off, so we were able to play and play hard. But we came late today. It really showed what we need to work on and the way that we need to improve in that; it is a major adjustment. But it is just having a big fellow in the middle to be dominant down there.”

"I was pressing early. That was one of the confusing parts without Yao as we learn on the go here. I was getting a feel for how I was going to play early on. If it was easy, a caveman could do it."

"I learned we got blown out. That’s what I learned."

“When Yao went out we had to adjust and now we are on the road and that is an amazing adjustment for us. Now we are going to come back in game 6; we are going to know what to expect and how to play and have the energy to win.”

“Chuck fouled early and that hurt us because right now we have no room for error. We need him to guard Gasol and when he’s out of the game, Gasol has a better chance of being successful in the low block. Chuck fouled, he goes out and they start getting tips, we missed rebounds – and that was the difference in Game 4: We didn’t make any errors; we played really well.”

“There are 7 games. That is the thing about the playoffs, there are 7 games. That is the great thing about going to the playoffs and playing in the playoffs is that it is not just 1 game; it is not like football where there is 1 game, so you can only stay positive.”


Battier

“I think Bynum had a great performance tonight and gave them a good boost. They scored more points in the paint. 56 points in the paint and that’s a lot more than they had in our previous wins. They played with more passion and more energy.”

"Chuck is our best low-post defender and he can really hold down the paint. But once he went out of the game, things sort of opened up a little bit."

“We didn’t make a lot of threes, and we knew we had to make a lot of threes coming in to beat these guys today. When you’re hitting them like we did last game, it’s a great strategy and when you’re not you look like a fool. Our margin for error is very slim, so when you have foul trouble and a lot of turnovers it makes our job really tough.

But we’re going to keep shooting threes and we’re going home and we’ve historically responded very well to double-digit losses this year. That’s our team. When people are ready to write us off we come out with a great effort like we did in Game 4, so there’s no reason to believe we can’t give a better effort in Game 6. We know it’s time to man-up or else it’s going to be golf time.”

"It was one of the few times this year I can remember when we let our offensive miscues affect the other end. We didn’t get back on defense very well and the game got away from us."


Brooks

“We got off to a good start. It was 11-4 and then turnovers. They had 19 transition buckets in the first half and that’s too many. We had too many turnovers. There are adjustments we have to make. We did a good job the last game of making sure they didn’t go on runs like they did this game. We have to get back to that.”


Landry

“There won’t be any carry over. You won’t see anything like this in two days. We’ll be ready. We know if we don’t win we go home so we’re going to give it everything we’ve got.”


Hayes

“We didn’t take care of the ball. They jumped on us, ran out, transition buckets, got everything to the basket that they wanted. Offensively we were out of sync. I take my hat off to them they came off better prepared then we were, ready to play mentally, so they got the win.

“A loss is a loss. If the game went down to the wire and we end up losing by two or one possession, it’s still a loss. We get to go back home try to tie the series up and hopefully come back here.”

“We watch film, make the right adjustments that we need to offensively and defensively, but most of all we just need to come out ready to play. We have to be in tune, in sync; we do that and we give ourselves a chance at home.”

"I thought we were, but with so many missed assignments – I don’t know if it was lack of communication or we just didn’t know – we just weren’t in the right place at all tonight."

"Even if I didn’t get my second foul, we still have to run our offense, we still have to defend. We’ve got to find ways to make plays, make winning plays, and stick to it."


Scola

"It’s not over. Everything went wrong."


LOS ANGELES LAKERS QUOTES

Phil

“I told the team that was really a terrific effort, great win but it doesn’t do anything but just mean that we brought home the 7th game, and guaranteed ourselves home court advantage in this series. And that’s what it’s all about, that win.”

re: Starting Bynum: “Well I just watched Lamar a little bit about how he was moving and his reactions. Little bit of how he went through the warm-ups and after he got out there on the floor. I felt that he was pretty ginger still. Obviously, wanted to have that big line-up in there to take advantage of their smaller players that they have right now without Yao on the floor.”

"He was walking gingerly, and the back is an area that you really can't protect. You've got to expose it all the time in box-outs and when you're on the offensive end in a post-up situation."

“Drew obviously was amped up when we told him he was potentially going to start, and I thought Lamar was gimpy in his warmups. Knowing how active we had to be to start the game, I considered Andrew our best bet.”

"We'll see how quickly Lamar improves over the next two days. There's no doubt that we want to see him come back and get back to as close to 100 percent as possible. But I'll still hold on to the option of keeping the lineup the same way it was tonight even if he improves."

"I like the fact the two of those bigs play well together and feed off each other, and Pau really looks to Andrew and helps get him going and it gives our rebounding a little bit of an edge with size."

"We want to do it defensively and hold a team down and find opportunities to run in the open floor."

"Our bench came out and established the game in the second period and
really opened the lead. That's the difference between home court and visiting ones once in a while; the bench has the edge."

“Usually it’s about finding a way to squelch the other team is usually what the process is about and we keep trying to do that with them and they pop out and they find another way to get going. They’re very resilient and defensively it’s about eliminating what they can and shortening their possibilities and we know that they came right back in the 2nd half and went right back with penetration off the dribble, off-screen, still trying to attack us in that realm and still trying to pursue what they’ve done well against us. We were much better at it tonight.”

"We obviously want to contain the dribblers, but we don't feel it's a situation like with Tony Parker, where they're just running the ball down our throat off the fast break. It's in the half court, and we have to defend that as a group."

re: Cursing after the last game: "I wouldn't call it a curse word. Cursing I consider to be taking the Lord's name in vain, damning people. But, yes, it was something I had never done."

re: Heard about it from family/friends?: "Just my mother. I'm kidding. My mother's dead. There was a reporter who was trying to hammer a point home and I wasn't going to get involved in it. It was used in the context of the conversation. With our mikes on court all the time and that word flying around the court almost on every possession, it's certainly not something the league's going to censor."


Kobe

“We just made our adjustments really. The last game they played a different style, a little bit more up-tempo, spread the floor out a little bit. Penetration hurt us and they got off to a quick start and we never recovered. Tonight we did a good job covering for our defensive assignments. We didn't blow too many of those; made plays."

re: Slowing PG penetration: “That was a big focus of ours. Brooks did such a terrific job last game getting into the paint, making plays, and scoring himself, where we had to try and make it a little bit tougher for him.”

"They're not as deep without Yao. One of their features is their depth, particularly at their C and PF spots. We try to take advantage of it as much as we can. Hayes is a great defender, on that low post, we try to move Pau a little bit, and Drew, worked pretty well for us tonight."

re: Bynum: “Very happy, he looked energized he played with the kind of spirt we like to see from Andrew. Hopefully he’ll keep it up.”

"We've got to stay focused and understand that the effort we gave tonight is not going to be enough on Thursday. It's just not. So, you have to pick it up, and bring more energy, more effort, because that's what the playoffs is about, each game you have to raise your level."

re: Jumpers closing in?: "I made my adjustments, too. They try to do certain things from game to game, with Yao being out last game, they made adjustments, in terms of their activity, so I had to make my adjustments."

"Every game you have to rebuild your momentum, it doesn't carry over. Have to rebuild your momentum, reestablish what you're trying to do out there on the floor. Like I said, the effort and energy we played with tonight is not going to be enough on Thursday. We're not playing some chump team. I don't care how many people they have out. This is a tough team, it's a tough team full of competitors. If we think they're just going to roll over, we've got another thing coming."


Gasol

“Obviously, it was a better game overall. Better effort and better result.”

“I think that we just started off a lot better. We set the tone earlier. We just got a higher level of intensity today than we did in Game 4.”

“It’s obviously hard to explain why we were so much better tonight, but we looked like two different teams on both ends of the floor. “We were more intense and aggressive.”

re: Bynum: "We all feel good about our teammate who has been down and hasn't been playing with confidence. And he now gets a little confidence going and gets himself going."

re: Take this effort to Game 6: “Yes. I do think so. I think that if we are able to have the intensity and aggressiveness we had tonight, we’ll give ourselves a chance at Houston. We look forward to that.”


Odom

"They gave me something to feel good and took some of the inflammation away. I was able to get treatment (Monday) and all day (Tuesday). I couldn’t really picture myself not playing Game 5."

"I didn't really know if I could play. It kicked in kind of late, right before tip-off."

"I really didn't want to bang too much. If my man was on my back, I couldn't really hold him out with my butt and go get those rebounds. My jumping was limited. I probably can't slide as well. I hurt my back pretty good."

"The back starts to spasm to kind of protect the injury. So I'm out of that state so I'm a lot better. That's the worst."

"I'll be OK, because I'll treat it all night [Tuesday] and twice a day [today]. When we get off the plane in Houston, I'll treat it. I'll just treat it and keep it as loose as possible. No worries."

“We started the game off with a lot of energy. You know, the strength of our team is our depth. If we can get contributions from everyone then we’re pretty hard to beat.”

"We can't get on our high horse. We have to put this game behind us. It was fun. I think we can always do it."

"Teams look forward to playing one of the best teams in the league, especially our brand. We know the world is watching."


Fisher

“It’s not about trying to send any messages or get revenge for something that happened before. You go out there and you do the best that you can on that given night. We did that tonight.”

"Andrew was active tonight, in particular securing rebounds and using his length around the basket. He has really good hands and made some nice catches and finishes in the paint. Those things are key for us. We have to find way to continue to utilize him and help him be successful."

"We have to use Andrew the right way. We can't just put him out there, and if he doesn't get 15 points and 15 rebounds, then everyone is upset and saying, 'What's Andrew doing?' We have to put him in position to do those things."


Ariza

re: Turning on and off high quality performances: “Well, now we can’t worry about that. We have to worry about the next game and that’s Thursday and try to close them out.

"We don't like to lose. Nobody in here likes to lose. We played the way we know we can play."

 

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