LA still calm, confident
It seems to me that the Lakers are still calm and confident, despite losing Game 3 of their Western Conference semifinal against the Jazz.
L.A. practiced at the Jazz's training facility on Saturday afternoon and, while the coaches and players credited Utah with an energized effort Friday night, they took most of the blame for their first defeat in the playoffs.
"It was an opportunity you feel like you let slip away," said Pau Gasol. "So we'll see if we can do a better job in the next game."
Asked if the Jazz did anything differently after losing Games 1 and 2 in Los Angeles, Gasol said, "They just played with a little more confidence. They were more aggressive and more active defensively."
Still, Gasol said, "If we take care of the a few things, we have a great chance to win. Even though we really didn't have a good game, we were right there with a a minute or two to go. Then [Carlos] Boozer came up with a couple of loose balls and made a couple of plays, or it might have been a little different. It tells me that if we do a few things a little better, we'll be all right."
Kobe Bryant pointed to 10 turnovers in the first half -- and seven in the fourth quarter -- as the difference in Game 3.
"I think they did good job getting their hands on the ball," he said. "They had active hands and they were able to turn us over, especially in the first half, when we had the bulk of our turnovers. And they converted them into easy opportunities."
Coach Phil Jackson thought the turnovers were a result of the Lakers "not being able to withstand that "chest-to-chest type of defense" the Jazz employed.
According to Jackson, the Lakers' total of 14 assists a telling statistic.
"... Really indicative of what that game was about," he said. "We didn't share the ball, didn't protect the ball and, as a result, we had to use Kobe as the main thrust of our offense in the fourth quarter. That is all well and fine but, at some point, he's going to run out of gas. And he did down the stretch, and he couldn't finish."
Bryant scored 12 points in the fourth quarter, but he missed four of his seven field-goal attempts and committed two turnovers.
*****
Derek Fisher did not think the Lakers matched the Jazz effort in Game 3.
"When you're the road team. you have to be really precise," he said. "You have to understand what your purpose is on every possession down the floor, offensively and defensively. [Friday] night, we had way too much slippage for a team that expects to win a Game 3 in the playoffs. It's almost like we didn't expect the Jazz to come out with their best effort."
The Lakers "didn't deserve to win the game because of some of the things we did and some of the mistakes we made," Fisher said. "If we expect to win [Game 4], we are going to have to be on-point, sharp, on-key with everything."
Asked if he expected the Jazz to again play with a sense of desperation, Fisher said, "I don't think desperation is something Jerry [Sloan] teaches of preaches. Obviously, they felt they had to win the game, but I don't think they played desperate. I think they just played hard -- they played their normal style of game and we didn't. That was the difference. If we played smarter and made fewer mistakes, we could have won the game."
With 3:22 left in the fourth quarter, Fisher was fouled and fell to the court. He hurt his wrist on the play and missed one of two free throws, leaving the Jazz with a 95-92 lead.
"I hit the floor really hard," Fisher said. "It was kind of numb for a few minutes there. I thought about asking Phil to call a time-out. But I didn't want us to use a time-out at that juncture ... so I tried to shake it up a little bit.
"That first free throw, it was still a little numb and I tried to use my legs a little more and it was long. I got a little bit of rhythm back and made the second one. I just wish I had I had made them both and we had cut their lead to two."
-- Steve Luhm
L.A. practiced at the Jazz's training facility on Saturday afternoon and, while the coaches and players credited Utah with an energized effort Friday night, they took most of the blame for their first defeat in the playoffs.
"It was an opportunity you feel like you let slip away," said Pau Gasol. "So we'll see if we can do a better job in the next game."
Asked if the Jazz did anything differently after losing Games 1 and 2 in Los Angeles, Gasol said, "They just played with a little more confidence. They were more aggressive and more active defensively."
Still, Gasol said, "If we take care of the a few things, we have a great chance to win. Even though we really didn't have a good game, we were right there with a a minute or two to go. Then [Carlos] Boozer came up with a couple of loose balls and made a couple of plays, or it might have been a little different. It tells me that if we do a few things a little better, we'll be all right."
Kobe Bryant pointed to 10 turnovers in the first half -- and seven in the fourth quarter -- as the difference in Game 3.
"I think they did good job getting their hands on the ball," he said. "They had active hands and they were able to turn us over, especially in the first half, when we had the bulk of our turnovers. And they converted them into easy opportunities."
Coach Phil Jackson thought the turnovers were a result of the Lakers "not being able to withstand that "chest-to-chest type of defense" the Jazz employed.
According to Jackson, the Lakers' total of 14 assists a telling statistic.
"... Really indicative of what that game was about," he said. "We didn't share the ball, didn't protect the ball and, as a result, we had to use Kobe as the main thrust of our offense in the fourth quarter. That is all well and fine but, at some point, he's going to run out of gas. And he did down the stretch, and he couldn't finish."
Bryant scored 12 points in the fourth quarter, but he missed four of his seven field-goal attempts and committed two turnovers.
*****
Derek Fisher did not think the Lakers matched the Jazz effort in Game 3.
"When you're the road team. you have to be really precise," he said. "You have to understand what your purpose is on every possession down the floor, offensively and defensively. [Friday] night, we had way too much slippage for a team that expects to win a Game 3 in the playoffs. It's almost like we didn't expect the Jazz to come out with their best effort."
The Lakers "didn't deserve to win the game because of some of the things we did and some of the mistakes we made," Fisher said. "If we expect to win [Game 4], we are going to have to be on-point, sharp, on-key with everything."
Asked if he expected the Jazz to again play with a sense of desperation, Fisher said, "I don't think desperation is something Jerry [Sloan] teaches of preaches. Obviously, they felt they had to win the game, but I don't think they played desperate. I think they just played hard -- they played their normal style of game and we didn't. That was the difference. If we played smarter and made fewer mistakes, we could have won the game."
With 3:22 left in the fourth quarter, Fisher was fouled and fell to the court. He hurt his wrist on the play and missed one of two free throws, leaving the Jazz with a 95-92 lead.
"I hit the floor really hard," Fisher said. "It was kind of numb for a few minutes there. I thought about asking Phil to call a time-out. But I didn't want us to use a time-out at that juncture ... so I tried to shake it up a little bit.
"That first free throw, it was still a little numb and I tried to use my legs a little more and it was long. I got a little bit of rhythm back and made the second one. I just wish I had I had made them both and we had cut their lead to two."
-- Steve Luhm
10:11 AM
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1 Comments:
You will never get a player to say that they are not confident they'll win the next game, especially in the playoffs. They may think it at some level, but they'll never admit it to the media.
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