JERRY SLOAN, JAZZ HEAD COACH

On the team’s shooting:
“We had open shots, we couldn’t make them. They got after us early in the ball game and really made us… took us out our offense for a little bit, and then we became a one-on-one team, which we’re not very good at playing and that’s what their defense did to us. Finally when we got back and started playing a little bit with what we wanted to do, we got good shots and you have to be able to make some of those.”

On Phil Jackson’s comment about Utah maybe being upset with Kobe’s free-throws:
“I think that’s fine, I don’t have a problem with that... He shot them, they called them, he shot them. That’s fine. I cant do anything about that. ”  

On the defense of his team:
“It was very, very poor at best. (Fouls) are what you do when you try and bail out… I’d say that’s very poor defense. I think that’s something we should work on, think about, try and do a little better job. When we tried to help each other, we were okay and at times when we got lost they did a great job backdooring us a few times. Hopefully we’ll adjust a little bit better defensively and do a better job next time we play them.”

DERON WILLIAMS, JAZZ GUARD

On fatigue being a factor:
“No, we don’t make excuses.  They obviously did a great job of getting out and making the most of our misses and they had 20 points off of fast plays in the fist half and a lot of easy layups and also got the crowd into it, and they did a great job at running the floor.” 

On team’s shooting:
“That’s what we will take away from the game.  We missed a lot of easy shots, a lot of open shots that we normally make. A lot of it was just their defense in the second quarter I thought their second group did a good job of coming in, and they pushed us outside farther than we wanted to go with our offense.  We didn’t get those same easy looks we did in the first quarter.”

On second quarter:
“Bad turnovers.  Being careless with the ball.  And like I said they pushed out on the floor and we got uncomfortable and that made us start taking bad shots.”

On prep for next game:
“We just have to look at the film.  I thought we had a lot of success when we came up on them, and we gave help to Kobe and Pau.  But then, we got away from them and you can’t let Kobe go to the line 23 times.  He’s going to hit his free throws.”

On the almost “comeback”:
“It is.  But you can’t get down like that to a team in the 1st quarter, in the first half and expect to come back.  You can battle, we were right there, right there, but you use a lot of energy just trying to come back and you can’t really get over that hump sand I think that’s’ what happened tonight.” 

On “rimmer” that didn’t fall:
“It summed up the night for us offensively, you know. (chuckles).”

RONNIE BREWER, JAZZ GUARD

On tonight’s performance:
“We put ourselves in a hole early. We have to find a way to play like we did in the first quarter, it was a close game, and we have to keep that same intensity, that same momentum throughout the second, third quarter and fourth quarter. We made a good comeback but they executed down the stretch and that’s why they came away with the win.”

On giving latitude when guarding Kobe:
“We are known as a team that fouls a lot so you have to adjust to that. Adjust your defense, not use your hands as much and make it tough.”

On outrebounding Lakers:
“I guess that’s one of the positives you can take out of it but we still loss the game so you have to put an entire game together, cut down the turnovers, knock down jump shots, and execute the offense. So if we do that for 48 minutes we should be alright.”

CARLOS BOOZER, JAZZ FORWARD

On winning the series “We’re past them now, and we have to focus on L.A. and number 24.”

On how the Jazz played against T-Mac “T-Mac was great. He had an incredible second quarter. Obviously he didn’t do as much in the third quarter, but he still had 40 points. That’s why when we got into halftime I said ‘if he has 50 points and we win the game, who cares?’ That’s almost what happened, and we won. Who cares?”

On the next matchup vs. LA “They’re a very good team, very good defensive team. Well coached, [they] move the ball well. We’ll review more of the tape in preparation for Sunday.”

ANDREI KIRILENKO, JAZZ FORWARD

On tonight’s performance:
“It wasn’t good enough. We gave it a good job on the boards but we couldn’t make a shot, we have been active, we have been aggressive and we probably could say that we are happy with our game but at the end of the game I think we lost the momentum.”

On defending Kobe:
“All you can do is be a team, team help because he is such a good player it’s very hard to guard him one on one, the whole team is suppose to be motivated to help and help the helper. Tonight we probably did a couple times a great job on Kobe, but he passed the foul and we didn’t have helper so it was a dunk or an easy lay-up so we need to be a little more motivated to help the helper and just rotate a little better defensively.”

On frustration of so many turnovers in the second quarter:
“It was definitely one of the keys to the game; we can’t afford to turn the ball over so many times, especially in that important kind of a game."

MEHMET OKUR, JAZZ CENTER

On tonight’s game:
“For the most part we need a good job, we were active on the class, we had 25 offensive rebounds and they got to the free throw line, and the game was right there for us but we just couldn’t get it and hopefully we will learn our lesson from this game and we have to look forward.”

On defensive performance:
‘We have to do a better job putting pressure on the ball, can’t let them pass the ball wherever they want.”

PHIL JACKSON, LAKERS HEAD COACH

On today’s performance:
“We avoided a game in which we could of easily come up on the losing end of the bottom of rebounds and second chances they got out there today. We were able to sustain that effort late in the game. Maybe it was the fact that we were well-rested that gave us that victory.”

On the 4th quarter and the Jazz cutting the lead from 19 to 4:
“I think it’s a good lesson for us… what kind of game they play and how they play it and to really see the strength of what their team’s about.” 

On Kobe’s free-throw shooting:
“It’s an incredible night to have 23 foul shots. I know that Utah’s not going to be happy about it. We’ll probably see about half that in the next game, if not less. So for him to do that, it was our biggest scoring threat of the night right there.”

On the team keeping up with the persistence of the Jazz:
“Until they experience it, and you’ll get into that kind of a scrum match that you’re going to have out there. It’s hard for them to be told that they have to just ‘get in there and get the ball’ and that type of a thing.”

DEREK FISHER, LAKERS GUARD

On his defense on Deron Williams:
“I just really tried to make contributions where I could, there weren’t a lot of offensive opportunities for me today but I think the key for us is going to be on the defensive end so I tried to play a role on that end.” 

On the keys to playing against a physical team like the Jazz:
“Just staying within yourself and not getting so caught up in trying to out-physical them and beat them at what they do every night. As a team we need to concentrate on the things we are good at doing and that’s executing offensively, taking advantage of our matchups and versatility at different positions and our depth. We can be physical and we can play hard because we have guys coming off the bench behind us that can help us.”

On how he was able to get a playoff career high 6 steals:
“I think probably what confused him was because of how old I am. I am so slow, when he fakes I don’t go for it because I don’t react that fast, so I end up still in front of him.”

KOBE BRYANT, LAKERS GUARD

On the team’s confidence as the #1 seed in the Western Conference:
“We have confidence. We know what we’re capable of doing, and I think the important thing for us to go out and execute and play our game, and go from there, but we have a lot of confidence.”

On learning from his experiences missing key free throws in 1997:
“Yes, that was a horrible experience, thank you for bringing that up. It was tough, and what I took from that is that I learned how to prepare myself, because it was such a long season coming out of high school, going from 37 games to playing in over 100, and I learned how to get my legs ready for that moment during the season.”

On Sasha’s contributions:
“He played extremely well. I think what our guys do is they stay within themselves and use the offense to get opportunities, and they know where those opportunities are coming from, and when an opportunity presents itself they’re ready to knock it down.”

On recognizing the plays Utah executes:
“It’s the same stuff, all of their plays, and I think Sloan is such a great coach that gets them to execute extremely well. You know what’s coming, but the execution is so precise, that a lot of times we find ourselves behind plays.”

On his comfort on offense:
“I’m just trying to read the defense, obviously our team has a lot of shooters and guys who can make plays, so I think in the first half we were very concerned with that, getting open lanes to the basket, and driving and penetrating.”

On comparing the Jazz’ physicality to the 90s team:
“I think they have more athleticism. With 90s teams, you’re talking about John Stockton, Brian Russell, Jeff Hornacek who played the last 7 years on one leg and was very effective. I think the guys they have now, they’re athletic, they’re all athletes, they get up and they run, and Sloan makes a conscious effort to try and get them out in the open court as much as possible, and open up the floor more than those teams.”

On the physicality of the Jazz:
“It’s nice. It’s a chance to bang, and that’s what basketball is about. If you’re an 80s fan or a basketball aficionado, you kind of like that stuff.”

On getting outrebounded:
“You know, we’re just being very consistent. We got our butts kicked on the boards against Denver too, so we probably don’t want to change that too much.”

On the importance of making free throws:
“It’s extremely important because they’re easy baskets. You have to be able to knock those free throws down and step up there, they’re open looks. You go up there and miss two free throws, and sometimes that can change the momentum, it’s as good as a turnover. So you have to take the responsibility to go up there and knock them down.”

SASHA VUJACIC, LAKERS GUARD

On the Lakers success today:
“I think we are playing good offense. We are moving the basketball, and the only thing that is kind of down right now is the team rebounds. We can’t let them take so many offensive boards, and we got to stay within the offense and everything will be okay.”

LAMAR ODOM, LAKERS FORWARD

On how the Lakers were able to get the victory:
“Just playing our way the whole time, not giving up, staying physical, and we started to rebound at the end of the game, that’s what changed the game.”

On the team’s consistent play:
“Defense and executing our offense, getting the shots that we wanted. We did that throughout the whole game and that was key for us.”

On how the Utah Jazz out rebounded them:
“It happens, and you just have to find a way. They were tough, you know pushing and shoving. It was a tough game down there but we answered the call when we needed to.”

RONNY TURIAF, LAKER FOWARD

On if the Lakers expected Utah’s play to be so physical:
“Most definitely. Those guys play real hard, they are well coached, they execute their offense, play hard on defense and I think it will be a real tough match up for us along the series.”

On how the Lakers were able to win this game:
“We just played hard for 48 minutes. We stayed focused even though they had those runs, we weathered the storms and I think we did a good job staying together. Not getting mad at each other and I think when you pass the ball, share the ball you put yourself in the situations.”

PAU GASOL, LAKERS CENTER

On Jazz defense:
“They did a pretty good job helping each other out and really keeping a body on you at all times and they played really good team defense.  They controlled the boards, which gave them an opportunity to come back in the game and they made their run.”

On Boozer:
“It’s a challenge.  He a great low post player who can post up and shoot jumpers also, so he’s a tough cover.  You have to try to make him settle with fade away jumpers and also get a little help from my guards.  They did an amazing job tonight…”

“He’s physical just like the other interior players.  I think Jerry did a good job on getting everybody on the same page by making them play real physical.”

On boards tonight:
“I don’t know.  We didn’t do a very good job on keeping bodies on them, and they really pounded us there, and they were going after it.  We weren’t focused enough on putting bodies on people and keeping them off the lane because they are going to push you… you have to be able to keep them off the lane and minimize those chances.”