NBA Post-Game Quotes
Minnesota vs. L.A. Lakers
November 9, 2005 @ Target Center

L.A. Lakers 74
MINNESOTA 88

Minnesota Coach Dwane Casey:

"Any time you hold a team to 29 points in the second half, I think it's a good defensive effort. I thought our guys competed in the second half. Defensively, we kind of took them out of what they wanted to do in the triangle. Kobe got on a little mini-roll there in the second half. He's a great player. I thought our guys played as good a defense on him (as possible)... In that stretch, Dupree came in, he was all over him and he still made those shots. From that standpoint, I was really pleased with our defensive effort against an excellent offensive team."

"The halftime adjustment was the fact that we wanted to make sure we pushed Kobe's catches out, kind of distort their triangle on the elbow catches. We did a better job of pushing it out. Also, the thing that was hurting us in the first half were the duck-ins by Brown and also by Mihm, and it got them in the penalty pretty quick. So we took those away, also. Those were the two major adjustments… Again, our zone kind of changed the tempo. We were kind of mixing and matching -- it was kind of a matchup into a man-to-man... So that helped us out a lot in the second half, also."

"When you know you have an offensively explosive team like Kobe; Smush Parker's been playing well (but) he had zero points; Lamar Odom, who is a point forward, is a tough matchup for any team in the league... So you've got to have your best defenders out there. I thought we had enough scoring with Wally playing as well as he was. I thought Trenton Hassell did an excellent job offensively, being aggressive... AC is a pit bull. I talked to some guys before the game about how we wanted to keep the rotation down a little bit, but it was hard because I eventually got to the defensive group in crunch time."

"They're doing a much better job of picking up defensively -- our positions, our schemes, where we wanted the help to come from. But the main thing was we messed with the zone a little bit and distorted it a little bit, and did some things with that and made some adjustments... We call it 'keeping the paint tight.' We wanted to cover elbow-elbow, box-box. That was our distorted zone that we were playing once (Bryant) had the ball. One of the values of doing that was, once he drove in there, he had a guy on him plus the two bigs on both boxes converging on penetration."

"One thing we did do (was) we made stands. AC made a great stand; that block with one second on the shot clock was a big possession. He read the play all the way. Bob Thornton coached in the triangle at Chicago; he was there with Bill Cartwright. So he knew all the nuances, the calls and the cuts. I coached against them in the playoffs in the championship series. You know all the nuances and all the set plays. Coach Jackson has been such a great coach that he hasn't changed very much in his plays."

"That (Carter's 3-pointer) is one of those 'oh, oh, oh, good shot'... That's not the shot we wanted. We were trying to go to Kevin and get him going in the post in the second half. They did an excellent job of taking us out of that a little bit, and AC jumped up and made that shot. He's a gutty veteran, a tough guy. He's an acquired taste. Going into the season, (he was) not a guy that I would say, 'Hey, that's going to be our defensive stopper.' But he did an excellent job one-on-one on Kobe, too."

"Against most teams, that size is going to be a benefit to us... (The small lineup) is a changeup. It's almost like a short relief pitcher and a guy coming in who throws the knuckleballs. It's a changeup. I think if you go one speed at anything in the NBA, it's tough to play that way. Our guys did a great job. Our bench has been super. Again, that's one of the goals of our exhibition season, was to develop those guys. And it's paying off dividends early in the season."

Minnesota Forward Wally Szczerbiak:

"KG is KG, but AC has no doubt been very, very important for us. Hopefully he can keep up the intensity and that energy, and I'm sure he can. He's been a big spark for us. When he comes in the game, he changes the game -- and that's when we went on our run."

"We're a young team. We're a new team with a new coach. We're feeling each other out, we're getting used to what we like to do and we're winning games. We had those two heartbreaking losses in overtime, but we took a lot of positives from them and we bounced back and played well at home and took care of our homecourt. I don't think we've reached our potential as a team. I think we can get better, so we just have to keep working."

"I love it. That's how you win games in this league. Defense is just having each other's back and playing hard. It's not like we don't try to push the ball up the floor. We try to score points; we just put our hard hats on and go to work on the defensive end. If you make it tough on teams, that's going to pay off throughout the course of the year."

"Guys like Troy, Kevin and myself, we've played the Lakers countless games in the playoffs and the regular season, so we're pretty familiar with the triangle. It was just a matter of helping each other when we needed to help each other, and communicating and putting forth the effort on defense."

Minnesota Guard Anthony Carter:

"The team defense was great. We've got Eddie, KG and Mike back there changing a lot of shots, and making it tough for Kobe and Lamar and the rest of the guys coming through the lane. I thought the guards did a great job holding Smush Parker and did a pretty good job on Kobe... He's going to shoot a lot of shots, so you just have to put your hands up and hope he misses. But overall, everyone did a nice job tonight."

"That was a big stretch there (in the fourth quarter). I'm glad (Casey) kept the lineup the way it was, because once a team is rolling you've got to stick with that lineup, and everyone came through... We didn't do anything different. We just played (Bryant) the way the scouting report said to play him. We had great help defense from everybody, and that's what it takes when you play against players like Kobe."

"Our big men did a great job of keeping the ball alive, and that was big for us tonight -- getting those second-chance shots. It's a great feeling to finally beat somebody on second-chance shots... Everybody knows their role, but we really don't know the rotation yet, and that's the business of this game. You just have to be ready each and every night. I thought we did a great job holding them down in the second and the fourth (quarters)."

Minnesota Forward Kevin Garnett:

"Nice confidence builders. We've always said, before anything, that we want to establish home. You know, the Lakers, the whole Kobe show coming in here, some of the younger guys were a littled enthused (but) at the same time with the mentality of 'Let's get better, lets get the crowd into it.' At the same time, knowing what Casey's going through, we just wanted to come out and play extra special, just because of what he's going through these last couple days. Put all that in one bowl, mix it up and you get a win."

"Trenton Hassell, Ron Dupree, they kept a body on (Bryant). We tried to make it difficult, tried to shut down the lanes. Top defense one-on-one will never beat the top scorer in this league, and that's just the way it's been since Michael Jordan and Oscar Robertson have been playing. But we knew it had to be a team effort and everyone had to be on the same page, as far as knowing where he was, being in position for rebounds and making some of their other people do some different things."

"(Casey) came in here and let us know that we're playing (poorly) offensively, but defensively we can change the game and change the momentum and get it to go in our favor. Remember, we're at home, we missed some shots -- you know, myself, Wally, we're not in our offensive rhythm right now like we'd like to be. But Trenton's playing aggressive, Marko's playing aggressive, Kandi's playing a lot more aggressive, and it's fueling us on the defensive end -- and right now it's way ahead of our offense, by far."

"I think Wally's just putting a lot of pressure on himself to make shots. When Wally's at his best, he's just playing. You can tell him 100 times, but until he instills it in his own mind and can actually go out and do it, it's not going to change. He's a basketball player and he has to understand to just play. When you think about things too much, it comes off like that. But we've got faith in him. He'll be all right."

Los Angeles Coach Phil Jackson:

"We had a game that we wanted to manufacture a possible chance to win... There was a three-point lead, the ball was rolling around, and Carter threw in a 3-pointer. Everybody hangs their head, and we play terrible after that. That took all the steam out of the team. I was feeling like they were going to hang on and at least give themselves a chance to win at the end. They just couldn't do it after that."

"(Bryant) sat out for three minutes in the fourth quarter. You have to give him a rest sometime, if he's going to finish strong. The sequence when I put him in the game, with about nine minutes left, I felt was critical. It was six points at the time, and it was time for us to make that surge… Kobe had a hard time. Hassell played good defense. He had a couple turnovers. They did a good job on him."

"I'm not happy with the way the ball is going inside. I thought Chris had some open opportunities, I thought Kwame had some open opportunities... We have to do better... The first thing, when they call an offensive foul on (Mihm) when there's nothing there, you know the kid doesn't have a chance... That's the way they treat him. The referees just give him nothing out there. It's embarrassing. He comes down and posts up Mark Madsen in the second period. He has a perfect post-up position (and) they call an offensive foul on him. That's ridiculous. I can see why he can't get things going. He doesn't have a chance out there."

Los Angeles Guard Kobe Bryant:

"They executed better than we did. We gave them too many second-chance opportunities, too many second-chance points, and that's what really beat us tonight... We made mental lapses in execution, which really comes from us not playing together for a long period of time. We played pretty well considering the circumstances of playing the second night, but it comes from inexperience. The more games we have like this, the better off we'll be. Hopefully we'll be able to win more games than we lose."

"Lamar got in foul trouble, so Phil wanted to move me to the backcourt, put another ballhandler back there. That's all I think it was. I think it gives the defense another look. You're used to seeing me one way, then I'm in another position, it switches it up a little bit."

"The Wolves have always been a pretty solid defensive team. They have shot-blockers back there. Coach Casey is used to playing an aggressive style of defense -- a lot of switching, helping, zoning up, things of that nature."

Los Angeles Forward Lamar Odom:

"We play some fourth quarters better. It's so funny, that Denver game we finished them in the fourth quarter at their home. This game we just didn't handle everything not going the right way. It was a six-, seven-point game for a long time... Just because you miss a layup doesn't mean you can't hustle back on defense, or if you give up an offensive rebound. Sometimes you just have to handle adversity. It's tough... Tonight they played like the home team, bounces went their way (and) they rode the home crowd."

"They're focusing on defense, you can tell. In the first half we basically got what we wanted (but) we didn't protect the lead well. We kind of let them run down and get easy baskets. That's usually what good defense does. It's nice when they have a guy like Garnett to protect the basket."

Los Angeles Forward Kwame Brown:

"It's just one game... We've got to worry about the next one. The beautiful thing about this game is that we have another one in Philly in a day or so. We get to come play a team that is leaking a little bit with a few injuries and not playing well, so we have to go out against them."

"Later in the game Kevin Garnett did his thing. He hit shots. I couldn't have played him any better. I had my hand up, was all over him... He's a tough player to guard. He's coming at you all game. We stopped him early, but at the end he was hitting shots right over our head."