JERRY SLOAN, JAZZ HEAD COACH

On the pace of the game: “I thought they were alive, they pushed the ball up the floor, they were pretty active.”

On how quick he wants the pace of the game: “Well I’d like it if things slowed down a little bit, especially when they’re shooting layups.”

On shooting 101 shots (most this season) against the Lakers 68: “Yes but we made 45. That was the difference in the ball game, was free throws.”

On the performance of one quarter leading to their demise: “We struggled before, but at least we fought back in the game, we just couldn’t come away with anything when we tried to finish around the basket. We scored 58 points in the paint, and we couldn’t get anything extra.”

On the difference in blocked shots: “It’s always important. I think once you have a few of those guys kind of stay away from the basket. We usually don’t block very many.”

On Boozer pressing: “I think every player goes through stages when things don’t go especially right for them. I think knowing Carlos, I think he was trying to fight out of it, I thought he had a much better run in the second half obviously than he had in the first half and seemed to be a bit more alive, and sometimes that’s the only way you get over it is to try to fight back, get rebounds, play defense, and play yourself back in it. If you try to do it the other way then you don’t have much to rely on, don’t have much to fall back on, I think that probably hurt him a little bit.”

On the various combinations against Kobe Bryant: “He’s the guy that made the difference when it came down. They gave him the basketball and cleared out the side, and he just beat us. We got back within 5 points I think it was, I think he had the ball most of the time.”

DERON WILLIAMS, JAZZ GUARD

On being more aggressive in the second half: “I just wasn’t very aggressive in the first half. I tried to turn it on a little too late. Again we got down in the first half and really dug ourselves a hole against a good team and you just can’t do that. Were sitting there fighting back, using a lot of energy, and you just don’t have enough to get over that hump. Both games we got it back to four or five points, but they just make the plays down the stretch, the stops down the stretch.”

On going back to Utah for games three and four: “We think its going to be a different ball game when we go back home. Hopefully guys can get their confidence back shooting wise because we still have not had a good shooting game and they played great defense on us. So hopefully we can come out and use the crowds energy to our advantage next game,”

On Carlos Boozer’s foul trouble tonight: “It definitely hurts, and I think that’s another time that I have got to be more aggressive, when Boozer is in foul trouble and off the court. That’s twenty points a game out of our lineup, its tough. Boozer, he knows he’s got to do a better job of trying to stay out of foul trouble so he can stay on the court and be effective for us.”

RONNIE BREWER, JAZZ GUARD

On being down 0-2: “We’ve been through it. We’ve been down. We just got to find a way to win. We got to take care of [business] and win on the road.”

On whether or not the MVP presentation affected the game: “I don’t think so. I think in Game One they came out really impressive. They knew what was at stake and how important this game was. We did too, (but) they were just knocking down shots and executing their offense a little bit better. When we made mistakes, they capitalized on the mistakes.”

PAUL MILLSAP, JAZZ FORWARD

On playing the next two games in Utah: “We want to get momentum. We believe we can beat this team and we’re going back home and we know our crowd is going to be into it. We just got to get up on our game.”

On the Lakers field goal percentage: “I think our defense was pretty good tonight, overall. They hit some tough shots; especially Kobe hit some tough shots, contested jump shots like that. It’s hard to look back and accept that.”

On guarding Kobe and the Lakers: “It’s hard. Somebody’s in his face and he still hits a three. And we know we play good defense; contested the shots like we’re supposed to. They’re good players. Everyone out there can play and they just hit shots.”

KYLE KORVER, JAZZ FORWARD

On the Lakers dominant lead: “It seemed like we were hovering around eight, ten points the whole game. We couldn’t get below ten, we got down to five once and made a couple plays and got to the free throw line. We just couldn’t get over the hump.”

On Kobe’s field goal percantage: “Kobe commands so much attention, you have stay in on him, when you do that, it just opens everyone else up. You have to cover him and you also have to cover… Lamar Odom, Pau Gasol… whoever that is. It’s a tough cover. The other guys get setup on the outside and you know Kobe shot a great percentage himself. He shoots a lot of shots so that’s why he got such a great percentage.”

On losing the first two games: “We feel like we’ve been in both games, we just haven’t quite gotten over the hump. We’ve been right there though. We know we’ve had mistakes. I thought Deron (Williams) really got on track the second half tonight and he started really getting aggressive so we need him to play like that. I thought offensively we were better tonight, we’ve just got to do a better job. They’re shooting great percentages here so we got to hold them back.”

PHIL JACKSON, LAKERS HEAD COACH

On tonight’s game: “We got off to a great start. The energy of the crowd and Kobe’s night gave us a real quick start. I just didn’t think we played well the second quarter, and they kind of carried the ball from there on out the rest of the game. They kept attacking and we were able to manage point for point, but we were never able to gather momentum in the second half.”

On his expectations in Utah: “No expectations, no disappointments.”

On how getting an early lead changes the complexion of the game: “Well it makes them have to catch up. The big key is about maintaining your energy, and I thought we got some turnovers and created some situations, 2,3,4 turnovers actually in a row in that third quarter that kind of contributed to their recapturing some energy in the game. Williams got going, finished the game strong, but you know, we never really had that point where we felt threatened, in this ballgame, we felt that the offense was going well, we were doing things we wanted to do.”

On the team’s rebounding efforts tonight: “Well we rebounded better tonight, we didn’t get beat by as many boards. We got beat by four in the game tonight. Obviously their offensive boards are still a factor, but you know we rebounded, and Lamar had a great game rebounding for us.”

On Utah taking 101 shots tonight, 33 more shots than the Lakers: “Well you know, you can see the second chance points on the stat sheet, 21 to 2, so that tells you something about the offensive rebounding and put-back opportunities that they’re getting against us. It’s just the type of game they play. They take the ball to the basket, they crash the boards, they’re in the lane on top of the ball, you know, the point of where the ball’s coming off the rim. So they’ve been successful with that against us, and we’re going to correct that if we’re going to win in Utah.”

On Derek Fisher’s contributions: “Fish was really great. First half, you know, he had a magnificent half, did a lot of things defensively that were right on beat. Second half, he had to come out of the ball game a little bit earlier than I took him out in the third quarter, but we just couldn’t find the space to get him out of the ballgame. Even when I did, Williams hit a three at the end of the quarter, but he really was a solid fixture out there for us tonight.”

On Fisher being the best option against Williams right now: “Yes. We haven’t used anybody but Fisher and Jordan so far.”

KOBE BRYANT, LAKERS GUARD

On using the emotion of the night: “It was an emotional night for all of us I think. What we tried to do was try to ride that momentum, particularly to start the game. Feed off the energy and we were able to do that.”

On the appreciation of the fans: “It was special tonight, when we ran out saw all the sings up and everybody in the shirts; we hadn’t seen Staples Center this electric. I had goosebumps running out because of all the appreciation from the crowd and how much they jumped into it. It was special, it gave me goosebumps.”

On the series shifting to Utah: “We got to control the pace. We are a pretty good road team; noise doesn’t seem to bother us too much. We just look at it for what it is, which is noise. We do a good job of focusing on the game and executing and we are really looking forward to it.”

On the Lakers playing until June: “We believe in ourselves. We have a high basketball I.Q. collectively, I think that’s really why I believe that we can play in June, because we all play the game extremely well, we play as a unit on both ends of the floor and that’s what you need.”

LUKE WALTON, LAKERS FORWARD

On Jazz’s run: “…You have to give them a lot of credit because they keep fighting the whole time and they fought their way back into that game. We feel like we have room to improve, and that’s a good thing.”

On the team’s defense: “Our defense the last couple weeks of the season and into the playoffs has been huge for us. I think it’s getting better which is a good sign for us, and the more we rotate, the more we help each other, just due to playing is going to get better and better as we go on.”

On Jazz’s 101 FGA: “I think the confidence brews when you get someone to help, and they have to kick, and then someone else helps and they end up having to shoot a jump shot with someone running at them with three seconds left on the shot clock. Even if they make that shot, you still feel good about what you are doing out there. And that’s what we’ve been working on and that’s what we’ve been doing and I think that’s why we are having success out there.”

LAMAR ODOM, LAKERS FORWARD

On intensity of tonight’s game: “We expected it, especially because our man got the MVP, we expected that. So they came out, and we just fed off the crowd. It’s a great day for us today.”

On importance of win going into Utah: “Not just that, but we want to protect our home court throughout the playoffs. We came here and did that; it was a big win for us.”

On Kobe receiving MVP: “It felt good because if we were an 8th place, 7th place seed, it could have easily gone to someone else. For us to become a better team, it allowed him to get the award that he deserves.”

On confidence from previous road victory in Utah: “It’s important to us to win on the road, and that’s why we won on the road, so we could be confident, to go into a hostile environment with the playoffs. We want to go up there and focus, and think about possession…”

PAU GASOL, LAKERS CENTER

On MVP ceremony: “I think it definitely energized us in the beginning and the emotional moment of Kobe getting that trophy was nice, and it was exciting. It gave us a lot of energy.”

On foul trouble of Boozer in 1st: “It’s always good when a primary guy on the other team is in foul trouble.”

On the Jazz’s run: “Well, it was close. Like you said, they got it to 5 and they got a little momentum in the 4th, but we just tried to keep executing, keep taking the shots that we have to take, so we did pretty good finishing the game off.”

On the estimated intensity in Game 3 “I don’t know. We’ll see in game 3 how frustrated they are, how hard to come out. They have to come out really hard because loosing that 3rd game would cause a lot of problems for them.