NBA Playoffs 2003
Round 1, Game 5
Lakers 120, Timberwolves 90
Target Center
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"Well, it was like Groundhog Day... Very similar to Game 1, with Fisher hitting threes and them establishing their role players. We played out of character. They took away our strength, which was not turning the ball over. We're in a situation that is very similar to after Game 1. It's the will to run what you want to do, and not let the other team dictate how we play. It's been the same every game this series. Whoever dictates the game has won. You've got to dictate the tempo."

"I told our guys, no one can expect — especially how we got beat tonight — for us to be in there on Thursday... We need to take what we learned, lick our wounds and take what we learned to Game 6."

"He (Bryant) got a lot of runouts off of steals. That always helps your percentage. When you get up 14 or 16 points, you play a lot looser. We never put them in a situation where they felt any pressure."

"I was hoping (Szczerbiak would have a breakout game)... This league has this new thing called videotape, and they watch it. And they're forcing him to put it on the floor."

"You've got to come out and establish pressure. You've got to dictate the tempo early, and we didn't totally do that — and they got into a comfort zone. For us, it's back to the magnetic drawing board, because we have to get better defensively."


"We've got to leave it all on the court on Thursday — do the things we did in Games 2 and 3. We've got to get back to applying our pressure and taking care of the ball. We gave up not only 29 points on turnovers, but Robert Horry became aggressive tonight. He had 12 points, Devean George played great defense and gave them another 12. Fisher had another big game. Shaq had 32 or whatever he had... We've got to take care of at least three of the five."

"We had too many turnovers. I had too many myself. I've got to stop turning the ball over and do a better job on Robert Horry. It's win or die. We've got all the confidence in the world, and we've won at Staples before. I hope they don't think it's over, because we're coming."

"You've always got to respect homecourt advantage going into a series. Home is where your heart is. In this series, that's thrown out the window. Both teams are very comfortable playing on the road. Both teams are playing at a high level of confidence. We've just got to quit talking and play."

"He (Bryant) got layups in the second half. He also got some open dunks. We turned the ball over, and they got dunks. That fuels their confidence. When you're trying to create rhythm during the game and you get a couple of layups, that's more confidence... Any time you build a team's confidence, they get a little swagger. We can't do that. They just made plays off our turnovers and our mistakes. I think the fast-break points were a crazy number to two. We can't win like that — not against any team."

"The crowd was crazy. I thought they were booing Wally at the end, but someone told me that the kid from 'Titanic' was leaving in his Laker jersey... The crowd created a lot of energy. I was so energized when we first hit the floor. Target Center was definitely rocking."


"We didn't play well tonight as a team. We turned the ball over way too much. This series isn't over. We have our work cut out for us. We have to get a game in L.A. and send it to a Game 7. We have to get prepared, and put this one behind us and move forward."

"If you don't play well, any team is going to beat you in this league — and beat you pretty bad. They got into a flow and a rhythm. They were very aggressive on defense and took the game to us. We just have to learn from it."

"We need to pick it up in the backcourt and make it tough for them to get into their offense. And we have to learn from what they want to do on the defensive end. They really were doubling and going for a lot of steals and lot of strips, and stuff like that. We have to take better care of the ball."

"We just have to forget about it. We are not dead in the water yet. Everyone's probably going to count us out now, but we believe in this locker room."


"They just dictated the play tonight. The last two games, they have done to us what we did to them in our two wins. They took us out of our offense and made us play at their pace. They pressured us more than we pressured them tonight, and that caused a lot of turnovers."

"We are trying to set picks for Wally to get him open and get him shots, and get him some looks on the transition. But they are playing pretty well on Wally right now and taking all his cuts away. We just have to try to continue to get him good and open looks."

"I had some good shots and good looks. They just didn't go down tonight."

"Both of them (Horry and Fisher) made shots tonight with hands in their faces. They were knocking down 'threes'."


"They just came out and were making shots. Shaq did a great job, and Kobe turned it on in the third quarter. After that, it was just over with."

"We have a lot of confidence coming into Thursday. We played terrible tonight, but we know our backs are against the wall and we have won out there before. We're riding on confidence right now, and we're going to come out and play hard."

"Everybody is missing key shots. When you miss key shots like we were missing, they will turn them into fast breaks — and it was like 20 to 2 in fast-break points. They kept scoring, so we could not come out and get our flow. We just have to make sure we play more aggressively. We have to play even harder and hungrier Thursday."

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"This was kind of like the first game. We came out very hot, but they came back on us and stormed back into it. However, we were able to finish the second quarter well and stay with that momentum into the third quarter with a lot of energy."

"Fisher was instrumental and inspirational. Shaq dominated down low. Kobe had a great second half. Horry made some big shots and contributed nicely. George did a great job replacing Rick Fox."

"This is a team that I recognize. We got into our defensive core, limited turnovers and found open men — and our three-point shooters made shots."

"We believe in Fisher. He has had great games for us. Sunday, he did not have a typical game. I thought he was having a great game Thursday before he fouled out. We wanted to make a few things happen for him to hopefully get his shot back. It helped force Hudson to work harder on defense, so he couldn't help out on Shaq so quickly in the paint."

"I feel bad for Flip. I know what he's going through, when a team finds it impossible to make anything click. It's tough disappointing the home crowd. This takes nothing away from their performance in the first four games."

"We wanted to be aggressive and not be tentative. The team that has established itself at the beginning of the game has pretty much dominated play. The momentum has seemed to carry into each quarter. We wanted to be that team tonight."

"I felt like, in this particular instance, it was important to get him (Garnett) to give it up. He was in a great rhythm in the post. If we forced him to kick the ball out, we might be able to make something happen for us."


"I think the reason we played so well tonight was we had a sense of urgency. This was a big game — a crucial game. We learned from the Sacramento series last year, when we went up there and didn't take care of business."

"The difference in halves for me was I was just taking my time. There were gaps in the first half that I saw that I didn't take advantage of, because guys were in such a great rhythm. I didn't want to mess with that rhythm. In the second half, I felt I could be more aggressive and go for those gaps."

"My teammates were really excited about my dunk. A slam like that can demoralize a team and silence the crowd. I'm interested to see it on tape."

"Playoff series are such long series, you can spot players' tendencies. And that's the reason we're doing better against some of their guys. I also think Wally has a lot of pressure to score in this town. The crowd is really on him whenever he misses a shot."

"Experience pays off when you get in games like this. We know how to handle it, and know how to apply pressure to the other team... We don't need to get too excited about this win. We did what champions are supposed to do. We just went out and played the way we were supposed to play."


"This is the first time in a long time that we've had a good solid third quarter. Usually we mess around at the end of quarters, and mess around at the end of third quarters. We just played solid basketball tonight. They threw it in, they doubled me, I threw it out, and my guys hit shots... We've just been taking care of the ball. They've been throwing it in, I want to throw it out, and guys have been hitting shots. We shot a couple of 'threes', we shot a couple of long jumpers."

"Derek Fisher played extremely well, Kobe played well, and Devean stepped up and played well. We played good defense and we held them to one shot. We just had a little bit more intensity than they did. This is the first game in a long time we've had a good four quarters — especially the third quarter."

"As long as teams double and triple me, we're just going to have to make them pay. We were shooting 38, 39 percent the first three or four games. I knew we were going to get better, and today was a good day to get better."


"Wally is one of those types of players who is a gunner. He's going to try to get his shots, and a lot of times that takes the other team out of their rhythm. But we didn't worry about Wally. We worried about Garnett and Hudson, because we know those guys are averaging 20-plus points a game."

"When Fisher knocked down his first couple of 'threes', you've got to play him. He played extremely well for us tonight... It opened up things for (Shaq) and Kobe. It gave lanes for Kobe to drive, and it gave the big fella a drop-step, to do his thing in the middle."


"I just treated it (starting) the same as usual. It just took me doing my job a little earlier, instead of coming off the bench... It wasn't any different for me."

"We had a little different strategy on how we were going to play them. We did a few minor things that were different, to make them work a little harder, and I think they got a little tired as the game went on."


"Probably other than the first half of the first game, we probably haven't played this consistent over a stretch of time. I think we won all four quarters tonight, and they've been beating us each quarter, it seems, since the first half of the first game. We've been playing behind through so many minutes of each game, and we have to waste all our energy in fighting back to get the game even and win at the end. Tonight we set the tone early, and those first few minutes in the third period were extremely important."

"In the playoffs, teams really focus in on game plans that focus a lot on trying to take things away from Shaq and take things away from Kobe. Once we settled in offensively and executed the way we were capable of, then open shots appeared for all of us. Tonight I was able to capitalize, and Robert and Devean did. We got some great contributions from everyone, and that's what it's going to take to win the game on Thursday and close this thing out and move forward from here."

"People underestimate how much he (Fox) really means to us, and how much we're going to miss him. I think as we advance, it'll show up at different times. But tonight, fortunately, everyone stepped up and played one of their better basketball games, individually and collectively. We got a chance to cover up a lot of things that he does for us, but we'll miss him a great deal."