(On the game tonight): “Obviously it’s a great win. Over this four game home stand, I expected to win three out of the four, but I guess I can’t be too greedy. Two out of four is not bad. On the injury note, Mo Williams reaggravated his right ankle a little bit and it was my decision, after talking with him, not to risk putting him back in the game and having it get any worse. We have got about four days that he can get treatment and hopefully get it better when he comes back.”
(On Antawn Jamison’s injury): “He got kicked in the calf at the end, but I think it will be fine.”
(On the meaning of this victory): “It means a great deal. First thing that it means is that within the last month we have improved as a basketball team. Something that we have been talking about since the Phoenix game was improving on the defensive end. Anytime you can hold the Lakers to 42% shooting, you are doing a really good job. It probably would have been better if we would not have allowed them 19 offensive rebounds. We are very proud of the effort that our guys gave, especially on the defensive end because I thought all night long we stayed focused on what we were trying to do on that end of the floor and we did a really good job of making it tough on them.”
(On the play of Ramon Sessions): “Over the last few games he has played great. Understanding that his role, as far as his minutes, was going to change but not his role (overall). He was back in the position tonight where he was going to have to play a lot of minutes and run the team and he did a heck of a job. 32 points, eight assists and he made every free-throw except for one, but other than that, I thought he did a heck of a job of taking control of the tempo and getting our guys in the system that we want to run.”
(On the impact of the last game against the Lakers): “I think that had a lot to do with it because of the fact that we talked about it. We harped on the fact that we embarrassed ourselves as a basketball team. We didn’t play real well. We allowed that team to basically manhandle us and do whatever they wanted. Again, it was a month ago, but I didn’t mince words when I said we looked scared. Tonight was totally different. I said before the game that we had to go out there and compete and be physical and aggressive. My main message was that they put their pants on just like we do. You don’t back down to anyone on that team. You go out there and play hard and I thought our guys did that.”
(On what he was thinking when Mo was out with injury): “I didn’t really know until the end of the first half. AP mentioned it to me during the course of the game, but I was just like, ‘Hey, just be aggressive.’ It was our last game before the break, so I knew I was going to get some rest (after tonight). I just tried to give it all I had.”
(On if this is a highlight of the season for him): “Well, it is the last game that we won, so yes of course. It was a big game for us going into the break. You couldn’t ask for anything else than going into it with a win against a great team like the Lakers.”
(On putting together all-out effort for 48 minutes): “We come to work every day and we know what we have got in this locker room. Like you said, if we go out there for 48 minutes and play hard, we can play with the best of them. That was proven tonight against LA and the first game (of the season) against Boston. If we come out and play hard, we can beat any team on any night.”
(On if effort and running the floor was the key tonight): “Yes, of course. We work hard in practice and we work on pushing the ball. I think we did a good job of pushing the ball tonight and getting into our sets early.”
LAKERS HEAD COACH PHIL JACKSON
(On what he told the team after the game): “You know I did not say anything. I just talked about when they have to report on Monday.”
(On his explanations for the team’s up-and-down road trip): “We had a lot of turnovers tonight that really hurt us. It cost us a lot in the first half. It cost us a lot in the third quarter and you cannot do that to this kind of a game on the road. We did not play a good road game at all. (The) 19 turnovers tonight were poor.”
ANDREW BYNUM
(On having a poor shooting night): “I could not buy a basket. In the first half I was not being aggressive enough. In the second half I was missing low stuff (in the paint).”
(On how to fix the team coming back from the all-star break): “We just have to play hard, harder than what we are playing.”
RON ARTEST
(On his thought on what happened in the game): “I got to look at the tape just to analyze what happened tonight and look at the tape and see.”
(On what happened to the team during the road trip): “I really did not get a chance to look at the tape. We were on a long road trip so we have a lot of time off (coming up). I will come back and look at all of the games and see what the difference was.”