(On the game tonight…)
We fell out of rhythm tonight a little bit in the first half with our bench unit on the floor. Had to come back the second half and attack this game with purpose, guys shot better second half too. Andrew had a really good first half, Lamar had a good second half, and Kobe had a good second half.

(On the Lakers slow start…)
Its just about keeping teamwork as a principle, keeping the ball moving, keeping guys moving, getting the flow of the offense, don’t get stagnant out there; and we were better off for it.

(On how they overcame early poor shooting…)
I think the real key was that Andrew was able to keep us in the ball game with his scoring in the first half, gave us an opportunity to weather a cold spell.

(On Andrew Bynum’s defense on Jermaine O’Neal…)
He did alright, O’Neal steps out 17 feet and now he’s got to play a different type of way to play defense. I think O’Neal hit a couple shots right at the end of the buzzer, beat the buzzer a couple times, but all in all I thought he did a good job on him.

(On scoring…)
A big part of me getting off is them two (Bryant and Fisher) giving me the ball, you know, all you got to do is throw it by the rim; I have a mismatch on me or Jermaine (O’Neal) goes out and I’m wide open at the rim. That’s all I need to do.

(On the Lakers being a better team this season…)
It definitely is great that we are a better team. Tonight we came out with a lot of energy, the starters had a lot of energy and normally the second team does. Because the starters had energy, we get easy baskets...

(On center Andrew Bynum…)
He’s doing a great job and just staying consistent and just coming out and playing hard, giving us maximum effort.

(On the pace of the first half…)
Well we just wanted to be patient, you know, started the game at such a long haul. We realized we were just missing shots and eventually it was going to go down for us.

(On taking the lead to twenty-three…)
Well, it’s more for us to understand that we took a blow from them, but I’m going to go out there and throw an uppercut and let them know this is our game.

(On taking the lead to twenty-three…)
It’s one of the reasons it’s so nice to have Fish back, you know. He’s made so many big shots in his career that those things were nothing for him. He came off the bench being cold and just knocked down a couple big ones and Kobe came and hit some big ones and before we knew it, we had the game under control again.

(On the Lakers chemistry and teamwork…)
We were playing team basketball… You know, whether we are hitting shots or not, we got to find a way to win. You know, Andrew’s playing great. He’s dominating the inside and moving the ball and everyone’s getting the ball. It’s fun to play like that.

(On the game tonight…)
We had a chance to cut it to four with an open three but we couldn’t get over the hump, then they brought their starters back in. We had difficulty with their starting line-up the entire night.

(On what makes the Lakers’ starting line-up so difficult to guard…)
I think Fisher, Kobe, Bynum and Lamar is what makes their starting line-up very difficult for us to handle.

(On the quick progress of Andrew Bynum…)
My hat is off to Mitch Kupchak for not making a move, he saw what he had. He is just a terrific talent and a huge presence inside. You can’t guard Kobe one on one and when you hold someone or bring someone over to help they just drive to the front of the rim and he seemed like he’s eight feet tall to me tonight. His development is a credit to him, their staff and the whole organization.

(On the tempo of the game…)
In the first half I think they had two fast break points and we had more. So we did a good job; we didn’t send anybody to the glass, we just sprinted back and they annihilated us at home. So in the first half I thought the tempo was great, when we came back I thought the tempo was good.