Q.  Can you talk about matching up with their shorter lineup, their shooting lineup?
    PHIL JACKSON:  Yes.  Well, that changed the course of the game, obviously.  Time out called, Perkins is injured, we're up by 20 points.  They put in Posey and House, and they spread the lineup and run screen rolls, put some pressure on us to have to match up on screen rolls and have three pointers available and they hit shots in the second half.

Q.  Can you describe what happened on the play where Ray Allen in the final minute was able to isolate one on one against Vujacic and make the basket?
    PHIL JACKSON:  Well, they just into an open floor situation, an open floor we have nobody to run, jump with on that kind of a line up. We had done it a possession, two possessions before and Posey had hit a three, so we just said to the guys, stay home, take care of your guy, make him take a tough shot, and Allen was able to get by Sasha on that.

Q.  What do you possibly tell your team after a game like that, up 24, you end up losing by six?
    PHIL JACKSON:  Well, it's not over.  This is not over.  The series is not over.

Q.  That's what you said?
    PHIL JACKSON:  Right.

Q.  What's the tenor of the locker room right now?
    PHIL JACKSON:  Oh, they're very depressed about that.  With the kind of momentum they carried into the locker room at halftime and having a 20 point lead in the fourth quarter, it's very difficult right now.

Q.  Sasha went from being the big hero in last game, and this game he's sitting on the bench really upset, his demeanor looked torn apart right now.  Do you think this young player can turn this around and do you think you need to tell him anything or talk to him?
    PHIL JACKSON:  No, they're resilient.  These guys are resilient. They have disappointments, they come back.  It's about team effort now that we have to make sure that we have a good collective energy again, come out and play that first half like we did before.

Q.  I've heard you talk in the past about the trappings of having such a big lead and how sometimes teams get maybe a little careless. Was that one of the reasons that led to them coming back?
    PHIL JACKSON:  I'm sure it is, but you know, there's some things that they did exceptionally well.  You know, Pau had a dunk.  It was a block or a foul, but it was a bang bang play.  They reacted to those kind of things.  They reacted to passing situations, destroyed passing lanes.  Those are some of the things.  I didn't think we got some lackadaisical.
    One of the things I was concerned about was that Kobe hadn't scored a field goal in the first half, and that puts some    then they knew, hey, he's going to come out and try to get some scores so we're going to have to commit as a team.  They committed as a team and we didn't have guys that stepped up and helped out in that second half.

Q.  Can you talk a little bit about the decision, the point guard decision, between Jordan and Fish?  You had Jordan play a lot of minutes down the stretch.  Was that a match up thing?  And also with Vladdy for Lamar at the end?
    PHIL JACKSON:  I just felt that Jordan's quickness against Eddie House was probably important for us to have, a little more harassing defense up the court and some pressure in his reactive time a little bit.  But Lamar had a great first half.
    The second half obviously wasn't as successful.  But they were what we call spying off him, going and helping off him and double teaming, and we need to spread the court and open up the court so we could get something accomplished there at the end of the game and get some opening opportunities in the lane.

Q.  Talk to us a bit about the confidence that you have in your team to win the next three games.
    PHIL JACKSON:  Our back is against the wall, but it's just a game at a time, and that's one thing we have to understand.  We have to keep forcing the action because anything can happen in these situations. You just keep playing through it and you'll find a way to keep succeeding as you go along.  We lost that in the third quarter and left that energy out there on the floor.

Q.  Do you feel like your team played a little tight down the stretch?
    PHIL JACKSON:  No, I thought they played tight in the third quarter.  When they came out of the second two minute time out, second time out in the third quarter, you know, I was saying that we were playing without poise.  We didn't have confidence in our execution skills at that time, and their harassing defense obviously is part to credit, as that goes.  But I felt that we got out of character at that time and they got us a little bit scattered.

Q.  I know there's a lot of stuff that contributed to this, but no steals in the second half for your time.  Can you talk about that?
    PHIL JACKSON:  Turnovers, steals, we kept saying we've got to get some turnovers, we've got to force something, and we didn't.  We couldn't find a way to    they kept the ball in Pierce's hands, and in situations which I thought they were relatively secure with.  But my issue with the team is we gave up too many lay ups, too many lay ups in the second half that cost us the ballgame.

DOC RIVERS:

Q. What kept you guys in it despite the fact you were down 24?
    DOC RIVERS:  Well, I really thought the fact that we had made a couple runs in the first half, you know, got to within 13 a couple times and then they got it right back up, it let us know that we were capable of making runs.
    So the whole key was us getting stops.  They came out in the first quarter, scored every time down.  I thought we actually had great shots.  I think I counted three or four lay ups and three or four wide open jump shots and then they came down and scored.  So I just think going small, spacing the floor, scoring, but getting stops.  The whole key was that they just didn't give up, and that comes from them.  Nothing I did.  They just had enough mental toughness to hang in there long enough, and I'm really proud of them in that fact.

Q.  Just talk about finally getting over the hump when you guys got the basket that gave you the lead and what that did for your guys' confidence?
    DOC RIVERS:  Well, I thought once we got it to down one and down three, we felt pretty good.  We felt very good.  The one little stretch I was a little concerned, I think it was two minutes left right before the fourth.  I knew I had to give Kevin a rest, and I thought Leon    he only played four minutes, but they were a huge four minutes.  It allowed Kevin to rest and get back on the floor and then finish with energy.  I thought that for us was a big stretch in the game.  Once we got the lead, obviously we were thrilled to death.  As far as when we were down, nothing was going right for us, and we just hung in there.

Q.  And talk about this in terms of comebacks you've had in your career as a coach and where you are in the position you're in now.
    DOC RIVERS:  Well, it's a good position to be in, but you have to win one game four times, you know what I'm saying.  We've only done it three times as far as I'm concerned.  Obviously we're thrilled with the win and it's a great comeback, but we still have to win one game and that's the way we view it.  As far as the comeback, it was a great comeback, but you don't get anything for it.

Q.  Can you talk about the decision to go with the three point shooters and why that worked so well?
    DOC RIVERS:  Well, because they were just trapping all over the floor.  You know, they were trapping off Rajon, they were trapping off Perk early.  I brought it up to our staff yesterday, probably a 50/50 split, and I just did it, honestly, because I thought we had to have floor spacing.  When Pose made those shots, I knew that from that point on, we were going to have one on one coverage.  Whether we made shots from that point on was up to us.  But the trap stopped, the floor was spaced, and once the floor was spaced our scorers could score.

Q.  Can you talk about halftime, what was said, what wasn't said?
    DOC RIVERS:  Well, what was said was "hang in there," number one; number two, that all the plays were made by them, all the hard plays.  We had cut it to 11 once or 13 once, and every time we cut the lead, they made a play.  There was a loose ball that we didn't get, they saved.  It led to I think it was a Luke Walton three.  Farmar ends the quarter with a three, Fisher with four seconds left on the clock gets a three point play.  I just thought they were making plays and we were not.  It had nothing to do with Xs and Os to me at that point.  It had to do with when there was a scramble situation, they made all the plays and we didn't.
    I told them we were getting great shots and we were going to continue to get those and they would go in.  But we would not win the game unless we defended and we made plays.  And I thought in the second half we made the plays.

Q.  Can you talk about the magnitude of the Ray Allen bucket?
    DOC RIVERS:  Oh, it was huge.  It was huge.  Paul was exhausted, and you could see it.  I mean, he didn't even    on that play he didn't want to come to the ball.  It was really supposed to be a middle pick and roll with Kevin and Ray, and Ray waved Kevin off because he liked the match up that he had already, so he didn't want to bring another defender in to help.  It was a great call by Ray.  And then him getting to the basket was huge.  The lay up was just tremendous.

Q.  Can you talk about Paul's just commitment to defense, especially against Kobe in that third quarter?  It looked like he decided that guy wasn't going to score on him.
    DOC RIVERS:  Paul came to me at halftime and said, "I want to guard Kobe.  Let me guard him."  I'm foulless.  I can commit some fouls, be physical with him.  It would take him off the post, so we went with it and it was terrific.  I think people will look at his offense, but I thought we won the game because Paul was a tremendous defensive player tonight.

Q.  That's something he's talked about since the beginning of this year, focusing on becoming a better defensive player.
    DOC RIVERS:  It's easy for him to do it because he had some help.  Before I've asked him to score, rebound, score the assist, bring the ball up the floor and defend.  That's a little much.  Now because he has help, he can focus more on defense and he's done that.

Q.  Did Kendrick dislocate his shoulder again?
    DOC RIVERS:  Don't know.  We'll find out.  When I first saw it, I didn't like what I saw, but I don't know yet.

Q.  Can you just talk about the play of Eddie House after not having played that much?
    DOC RIVERS:  Yeah, it was terrific.  We would have gone with Eddie or Sam, honestly.  We just needed a guard that they had to stay with so they couldn't help.  With Rajon they've been allowed to put Kobe on him, and Kobe might be the best help defender I've seen since Pippen.  Putting a shooter on the floor forced Kobe to stay home, and that gave Kevin and Paul room.

Q.  I get the feeling that I still haven't seen the absolute best that this team could play.  Do you feel like that as a coach?
    DOC RIVERS:  Yeah, I told them that.  I mean, I was obviously happy with the win.  But we've played in quarters throughout this series.  We have yet to play four quarters in my opinion, and I'm sure they feel the same way.
    But I know we can play better.  There's no doubt about that.

    Q.  When this team was constructed, the concept in some respects was Kevin Garnett gets you to a certain point and now you have the finishers in Ray Allen and Paul Pierce, at least offensively.  Did that come into play tonight?
    DOC RIVERS:  Yeah, it did.  Kevin made a huge shot on the post.  That was big for us because we just had to give Paul a break.  He had gone basically carrying the load almost for 12 straight minutes, and I thought that was maybe the single biggest basket.  There was so many big ones.
    But that play allowed us to stretch it to five, I think, if my count is right.  So Kevin contributed, as well.
    The thing with Kevin, he's such a great passer, he's such a great threat that Paul is a great closer and so is Ray, but you can't leave Kevin.  When he's the only big on the floor and you have guards driving and the big is reluctant to leave.  Ray's lay up was an example of having Kevin Garnett on the floor.  You can't leave him, so it gave us a chance to get to the basket.

    Q.  We've seen teams come back from deficits like this before, but on the road against the Lakers, what does it say about your team that they didn't give up?
    DOC RIVERS:  Just great mental toughness.  They just hung in there together.  We've been preaching leaning in.  When things get bad, lean into each other, all year, and tonight we did it.

PAU GASOL

Q.    The play when Ray Allen got by Sasha Vujacic, Phil said he told you guys to stay with their shooters.  Can you describe your thought process when Ray got to the basket?
    PAU GASOL:  Well, I thought that he was going to keep him in front of him, but obviously when you're guarding Ray Allen, you're concerned about his shot, shooting ability.  I was just    I saw the shot clock going down and kind of went to make sure I put a body on Garnett for the rebound, but I probably should have helped him out, react to that penetration.  I just wasn't expecting it, and make him kick it out to Garnett, make him make a jump shot from the corner.  But it happened pretty quick.

Q.  It seemed like you guys had great spacing in the first half, particularly in the first quarter.  What happened in the second half?
    PAU GASOL:  I guess we got away from the things that we were doing well in the first half.  We were playing with confidence.  We were playing, passing the ball really sharp, not turning the ball over and finishing up aggressive on the rim.
    Second half we just got away from it a little bit.  We started settling, and then they started making shots.  They started taking advantage of those long shots and those turnovers we had in the third quarter, and then it put a lot of pressure on us.  So we were really tentative at the end of the game with the ball in our hands.  It just didn't make things easy for ourselves.

Q.  Was there something specific the Celtics did defensively in that second half to stop the execution?
    PAU GASOL:  I'm not sure that it was them that kind of got us to go a different direction.  I don't think their game plan changed at halftime.  You know, we have been struggling on third quarters.  I think that every single game of this series in the third quarter we seem to give up a lot of points, which we were aware of it and we were concerned about it, and we wanted to make sure that we came out and we took advantage of the lead that we had going into the halftime.
    But we weren't able to do it, again.  Like I said, got away from the things we were doing well in the first half, and we weren't as aggressive, I don't think.  We just settled a little too much and turned the ball over.

PAUL PIERCE:

Q.    Can you talk about the defensive intensity starting in the third quarter, especially your own, D on Kobe, seemed like he was trying to take you one on one a lot and you were able to hold your own.
    PAUL PIERCE:  We said coming out of the third quarter that regardless of what the score is, we're not going to look at the score, we're just going to go out and play and compete.  I just thought they did a better job of competing, getting to all the loose balls, outrunning us, rebounds.  If we go out there for the next 24 minutes and compete and not worry about the score and play like our lives defended on it, we'll have a chance and we can be happy about our effort at the end of the day.  That's all I said.
    We just went out there and played as hard as we could, and we believed and we stuck together and was able to pull off this win.  Incredible.

Q.  Can you just talk about the importance of the third quarter?  That was obviously when the game changed.  And at what point in that third quarter did you guys start to believe we can win this thing?
    PAUL PIERCE:  Well, it wasn't about believing that we can win.  It was just, like I said, going out there and competing.  It was just going out there and putting out the effort, and then you're looking at the results.  Once we started cutting into it, we fed off the energy from our bench, fed our off defense, made the extra passes, was able to knock down shots.  We got aggressive and we stayed aggressive, and once we cut it I think it was under 10, once we got to that point with a lot of time left, we believed, hey, we can take this home.

Q.  Can you talk about being on the verge of something very special?
    PAUL PIERCE:  You know, I'm happy for the win, but the guys are excited.  But after that, Sam, Pose, you know, those guys have won championships.  They said, hey, the close  out game is the hardest game.  You thought this game was hard.  So hey, I don't want to get overjoyed, I want to go out there to try to win Game 5 on Father's Day and then I'll be able to breathe.  Right now I'm waiting to exhale.

Q.  Doc said at halftime you asked him to guard Kobe.  Why did you do that, and what did you do to contain him?
    PAUL PIERCE:  Well, I felt like I could be a little bit more physical on him.  I didn't think he would be able to post me as easy as he wanted to.  You know, I'm a little bit taller than Ray, so I can get a hand up, challenge him a little bit more.  The whole thing is it's hard to stop a player like Kobe Bryant.  He's the MVP, numerous scoring titles.  If he can go out there and make him work for everything he got, you give yourselves a chance, and that's all I wanted to do, just make him work.

Q.  You've been in situations like this coming back from huge deficits, but in this situation, in The Finals, on the road, against the Lakers, can you talk about what it means for you to overcome a team in this situation?
    PAUL PIERCE:  You know, it's great right now, but I think when I get a chance this summer to sit back and look at it all, I'll be able to soak it in a little bit better than I am right now.  It's a great win, we're grateful to be up 3 1.  Like I said, when I look back at this season, when I look back at this series, when I look back at this game after I sit down, then I'll be able to soak it all in and really tell you how it feels.  Right now I'm just happy to be up 3 1 with a chance on Sunday to close it out.

Q.  But the idea that this team doesn't give up, can you talk about that, the resiliency of this team?
    PAUL PIERCE:  I already knew that.  I knew we weren't going to lay down.

Q.  How discouraging was it to go into the half with a shot from Jordan Farmar?
    PAUL PIERCE: That was something that could have easily delated it, to go to 18 after we worked so hard to cut it to 12, 13 points.  I knew this team would fight.  We've been through a lot of wars throughout the season and in the playoffs, and I knew regardless we were going to fight back and we weren't going to lay down.

Q.  A number of general managers have said this league is changing rapidly, small ball, athletic players.  There's a shift in things happening.  With the Finals, both teams have been using small line ups to go at each other at different times.  Do you think things are changing right before our eyes with the way things have turned out?
    PAUL PIERCE:  I don't know if it's small ball.  It just looks like the taller players are just becoming more well rounded.  You look at a guy like Kevin Garnett, he can dribble, shoot, pass.  A guy like Lamar Odom, these guys can play center and forward.  The guys are becoming more well rounded.  It may seem like they're going small, but Lamar Odom, he's their forward, but he's 6' 10" and he can drive the ball.  I think the players are becoming more versatile at the positions you wouldn't expect it.

Q.  You guys obviously expended a lot of energy coming back from such a big deficit tonight.  Yet two games before Game 4, are you happy to have that extra day or would you rather play after a day and keep the same schedule?
    PAUL PIERCE:  I think these next two days are great because I'm feeling kind of sore, kind of tweaked my knee tonight.  Rajon is hurting, Perk hurt his shoulder tonight, so I think these two days will be great for us to recuperate from our minor injuries and try to suck it up on Sunday and end this thing before things get worse.

Q.  When Eddie goes in and Pose goes in, they space the floor.  What does that do for you and help you out as a shooter?
    PAUL PIERCE:  That's our best offensive lineup.  When you have Eddie, he can extend the defense along with Posey.  That's what we tried to do.  That's what really sped up the game.  The disadvantage would be on the rebound, but the advantage would be our quickness, our ball handling and our shooting.  So we were able to spread the court, drive the lanes.
    As you saw, Ray got a wide open lay up late because the guys couldn't come off the shooter.  It makes it a lineup that's difficult to stop when you have that many shooters on the court and be able to penetrate and shoot the gaps and find them.

Q.  You've also been with Doc longer than anyone here.  What can you say about the way he's coached this series coming in as the less experienced coach?
    PAUL PIERCE:  He's done a great job.  I mean, he knows the game better than anybody I've played with on this level.  He's easy to get along with.  Even though we were down 20 some points, he kept his composure.  He said, "hey, let's not worry about that, let's go out and compete."  He didn't over scream, he didn't get nervous, he just said, "hey, let's go out there and win the game, you guys can win the game," especially late.
    We've got a lot in common.  We're both Libras.  Our birthday is on the same day, if y'all didn't know that.  He's been great for me.

Q.  Even though it was a tremendous comeback win for you and your teammates, can you talk about how even more special it is for you doing it at home against a team that you idolized when you were growing up?
    PAUL PIERCE:  You know, it's a dream if I can come out here and win on Sunday.  I don't even know what to think about.  I don't want to get over excited right now over one win.  It's definitely a great win, one that you're going to put up there in the library and break back out one day for your kids to watch.  But I want nothing more than that ring right now and I'm not going to get over excited.  Definitely these moments are great, and like I said, I'll be able to enjoy it even more once it's all over.