Q. Has it been frustrating for you, it seems like in Europe people in basketball accept you for who you are and your qualities, whereas in the NBA since you've been in the league, everyone wants you to be less soft, more physical and some other type of player?  Has that been something you've had to deal with over your career?
    PAU GASOL:  At times, at times, yes.  I think I've become more physical since I got in the NBA.  My game was very different when I got to the NBA.  I was more of an outside player.  I played a lot of small forward before I came to the NBA and it was much more finesse and facing up the basket.
    Now my game, because I've always been the tallest on my teams pretty much, has been more to a center position instead of a power forward, which I felt more comfortable.  I don't know how it feels anymore to play a power forward and be able to be more comfortable and fluent out there.
    But I just try to adjust to what the team needs.  Most of the time we need somebody that rebounds, plays defense now and hustles and bangs up.  Even though my body is not fit for that most of the time, I still try to have a lot of hard, and I'm a competitor, and I'm going to go out there and do what it takes.

Q. Are you a better player now since coming over from Memphis, or just are we noticing more?  Is it motivation that could make you a better player?
    PAU GASOL:  I think there's a lot to it, all the aspects that you touched.  Motivation obviously is a big factor.  It makes you play harder, I think, and you're playing for a purpose and with a purpose, and that helps.
    Obviously being in L.A., the exposure is 1,000 times bigger than being in Memphis, so people probably didn't notice me much when I was in Memphis because probably had one or two nationally televised games and probably when the games came on, people really didn't want to watch our game.
    What else?  What else did you touch?  That was pretty much it, right?

Q.  Are you having fun now?
    PAU GASOL:  Yeah, I'm having a lot of fun.  Winning to me is fun. Having an opportunity to win a championship is fun.  That's what I'm about and that's how I have fun, and that's something that I've been lacking a lot lately in my NBA career.  So definitely enjoying it, definitely having a lot of fun, and very fortunate to have this amazing opportunity to be in the NBA Final with the Lakers and still very well alive.  So we're good to go.

Q.  What do you think of the shots that Kevin Garnett is taking?  Do you think these are shots that he usually makes or do you think you guys are a factor in pushing him away from the basket a little bit more than he's used to?
    PAU GASOL:  Well, I think his game this year has moved out a little bit more in the perimeter than it has in the past.  I think I noticed in the playoffs he's been shooting a lot from the outside and knocking them down for the most part.  I think he's been pretty effective during the playoffs, and maybe the last couple games he hasn't been as effective shooting the ball from the outside.  But I've been trying to do a pretty good job of contesting and getting a hand in his face and making it hard.  But you know, he had a couple games off, very capable of bouncing back and having a very good shooting night the next couple games.  Hopefully that won't happen, but he's capable of it because he's such a good player.
    We're trying to play him physical and play him hard and make sure we contest every single shot and make sure we make him fade as much as possible, fade away from the basket instead of getting in the lane which is harder to guard.  He had a couple good hoops in the fourth quarter, I think, earlier on going to the basket, and he's effective doing that.  But I think last night it was a tough game.
    I think most of the players out there struggled physically.  You could tell that the travel and the Game 2 and 3 being so tight together, going across the country pretty much is an overseas trip.  Me going from Boston to L.A., refueling in the middle, it was like going back to Spain.  It was pretty much the same time in hours.
    Anyway, I think that was a factor.  But you know, I'm always going to play him tough and make him take those shots, and hopefully he'll miss them.

Q.  Does the fact that you mentioned it was a tough game and the fact that you guys won ugly, does that help set maybe a platform for you guys to continue your success and perhaps put a little bit more of your style, your game, into the next-- obviously the rest of the series?
    PAU GASOL:  I think it should give us a lot of confidence that we were able to get a win last night playing, I think, as bad as we did offensively.  We definitely battled and hustled and played hard defensively and did a good job on them, but we struggled offensively. We weren't fluent, we weren't confident, we weren't being ourselves out there.  And it's encouraging.  It's encouraging because we have so much room for improvement for Game 4 team wise that we should be encouraged and confident going into Game 4 and being able to control the tempo, play more moving the ball, sharing the ball and finding guys, and it should be fun.  So hopefully that will happen.

DEREK FISHER

DEREK FISHER:  I don't know if relief is the term, but I definitely think we feel that we've taken a step in the right direction in terms of giving ourselves a chance to win a championship.  I mean, if we don't win the game last night, the reality of being able to win a championship becomes very small.  So we've gotten closer to having the opportunity.  But until we win another game, then we're still in a tough spot.

Q.  The win last night was an ugly win; you'll have to admit that.  And you seem to be in a scoring slump yourself.
    DEREK FISHER:  Well, scoring for me has always kind of come and gone.  It's not the primary role that I play for the team.  So at times it's frustrating that the opportunities are not there as much, but in terms of my confidence in knowing I'm capable of making plays and making shots for our team, that won't ever go away.
    Things always kind of come around for me if I just continue to play hard and make a contribution defensively, do some things that I can do, the shots will come.  So I'm fine in that regard.

Q.  A lot is being made of how poorly KG and Paul shot, but you and Lamar and Pau didn't actually distinguish yourselves in shooting percentages last night, either.
    DEREK FISHER:  Well, there's a difference between 1 for 6 and 6 for 21, so you can count how many times I've taken 21 shots in a game.
    No, I just think that both teams at times have found it difficult to do what it is they like to do on the offensive end.  Obviously the Celtics are very highly regarded in terms of their ability to play defense.  And so for us, it's just a matter of continuing to work through that and finding ways to consistently score the ball.  But we can't rely on Kobe scoring 36 points and maybe having one other guy be effective offensively.
    I think what makes Boston good is that they have three guys who consistently are going to score 20 points for the most part, and that's something that our team has continued to try to do.  It can't just be Kobe, it has to be Kobe and Pau and Lamar and myself at times or Radmanovic at times or Farmar or Vujacic off the bench at times.  That's the only way you can be successful at this level.

Q.  Did you notice any difference of play in Rondo when he came back from his ankle injury there in the fourth quarter?
    DEREK FISHER:  Nothing jumps out at me.  I think he's always played pretty smart and stays within himself, doesn't try and do too much.  So I can't say that it was surprising that he wasn't trying to make a lot of stuff happen out there.  I think he does a good job of staying under control, not forcing plays, but obviously he didn't play as many minutes as he would have had he not been injured.  So I think that's obvious.  But how it affected him when he came back out there, I'm not really sure.  Coach Rivers decided to go with Eddie House down the stretch, so that probably says a lot right there about how he felt.