Note: I found Fisher's comments to be the most interesting. I've
thought for a few years now that he'll make a good TV or radio analyst
or maybe even a coach.
http://lakersblog.latimes.com/lakersblog/2008/05/kobe-says-hell.html#more
Andrew and Brian Kamenetzky
Kobe says he'll be good to go
I figure I'd just put that out there in the header, since it's the
most im****tant piece of information learned today at practice. No
surprise, given that even if he'd been wheeled into the building on a
gurney and encased in a body cast, Kobe would say he'd be ready by
Wednesday. That's how he rolls. Fortunately, he was fully vertical
in his media session today, though he admitted to being pretty damn
uncomfortable. Now it's a matter of getting himself through some
round the clock treatment and back on the floor for Wednesday, with
the added benefit of an extra day off. Every bit of recovery time
will help, hopefully getting him just a little more whole. If not, he
could again be limited in what is a ludicrously im****tant Game 5. But
feel comfortable hitting the pillow tonight in the belief that Bryant
will be in uniform two nights from now. "I'll play. I can't imagine
it being worse than it was last night," Bryant said.
Sunday, the back clearly affected his play, especially late. "I just
couldn't elevate," he said, "and get enough space to knock down a jump
shot here and there. What I tried to do is not re-injure it, so I
tried to play and make drives to the basket where I could withstand
the pain without the back completely spasming, which put the next game
really in jeopardy."
Kobe has suffered through a few big injuries, but his back has been
relatively clean, so to speak, over the course of his career. "I
really don't hurt my back too much. I remember having (trouble) when
I was 21 or something like that. I rarely hurt my back." He must be
getting old. The good news is the problem appears to be muscular,
rather than something disc or nerve related. No x-rays necessary.
Regarding TooManyShotsInOvertimeGate, Kobe had the following to say:
"I got some pretty good looks that didn't fall down for me. Some
nights they go, some nights they don't. The pull up jumpers that I
had in front of Andrei (Kirilenko), I should have knocked those
down."
The consensus seemed to be that execution got away from the Lakers,
whether it was shot selection by Kobe or the things his teammates
needed to do in an effort to make themselves more available. As he's
often able to do, Derek Fisher broke it down in a way that very
diplomatically suggested everyone had a role to play in what went
wrong. "During the game, things are happening so fast you're not
always able to calculate everything that you want to do, and then even
when you think about it it's not always easy to get to it. There are
times where you're trying your best to win, and sometimes you get
caught up in the moment, and may try to make a play yourself, or
somebody else on the time might feel comfortable trying to make a
play, as opposed to just settling in and executing our offense. Those
are things that you live with on a team, and you just hope that guys
are able to recognize it so that going into the next game, when you
find yourself in that same spot, instead of getting so full of fire
and competitive juices, you're able to step back and say, "Okay, let's
just rely on what got us here."
"We worked ourselves back into that game real easily just doing simple
things, and that's what we're going to have to try and do Wednesday
night."
I talked to Ronny Turiaf, who again expressed regret both that Ronnie
Price went down hard, and that he put his team in a position to be
shorthanded. He was, though, adamant there was no intent to harm.
"I was trying to block his shot," he said. He's received no word from
the league as to if he'll be suspended (I'd be shocked if the NBA came
down on him), which is a good thing. "I don't want to hear from
them," he said. The officials may have punished Turiaf for hitting
Price hard on a play that came after the whistle, but on the other
hand, Price went to finish the play, too. "To be honest with you, I
was caught by surprise when I saw him come to me. So when he did, I
thought there was no whistle. That's why I went for the blocked
shot. I was like, so you're going to keep playing, then I'm going to
keep playing."
Back to the back...
Pau Gasol seemed confident that the sup****ting cast can step up in
sup****t of 24 on Wednesday. "We're all talented enough to play good
games," he said. "It's a game that we need to win no matter what."
Gasol knows what it's like to play with back pain. "It's limiting,
and it's tough because you don't feel as quick and explosive. But you
play through it." It'll be interesting to see how Game 5 opens. Will
Kobe come out and try to show he's okay from the get go? Will he be
more deferential? Will Utah attack him to try and assess his
condition? I'd be shocked if they didn't try to play a very physical
brand of ball with him from the tip. What will LA do to try to
protect him, if he needs it?
Just one of the issues we can kick around over the next two days.
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