Kobe Bryant

I try not to think about it that much because I just try to stay in the moment as much as possible. That being said I still appreciate greatly and feel very blessed and very fortunate with what's going on.

How about us versus them?

I don't think it's a story. The guy's in Miami. I mean who ... cares?

This was a must win for us. We played well the entire trip but it's just that we weren't able to close things out. Tonight was a win that we desperately needed.

It means a lot to me because we're playing well and we're in a position where we can get into the playoffs and make some noise. We've achieved everything we have as a team and the individual stuff just makes for a more pleasant journey.

He taught me how to play the game. He's the coach I'm the player ... We don't think we're going to have any problems.

We played hard tonight. Even the last two games that we lost on the road we played hard. We just did not come through down the stretch of the game. Tonight was no different. We are a physical team and we got after them a little bit. All around it was a good victory.

You give us two or three days in the playoffs to prepare for a team study them and break them down and we'll see. That's what he lives for. That's what the system is all about.

It makes me very proud of him. I look at all these guys here like little brothers. And he is out there in practice and working hard. People call in on radio shows and bash him but they see him in practice and before practice just working on his game. His improvement tonight just didn't come out of nowhere.

from a business perspective it's great for the NBA... Notoriety sells.

This is a big road trip for us. We can't sulk for one game. We have to keep our heads up and move on to the next one.

I love him. I've been fortunate to have sat down and talked with him in the past about basketball things and stuff like that. He's an amazing coach. If he's available to be considered I'm sure he's one of the guys that Mitch and Dr. Buss would consider.

It was a very frustrating loss. We need to regroup and get back home and get back on the right track.

During the regular season when everyone was trying to learn the offense Phil and I both knew I was going to have to shoulder the scoring load. Now in the playoffs everyone has a rhythm for the game and we can start attacking as a union.

I went after it a little bit more aggressively and the team did a good job looking for me. I felt we had to get something going in the third quarter.

I think it's great. You know, just putting the past behind us, just move on. We had three great years together. I think it was important for the fans to see. It was good for us to be able to put this behind us and move on.

We're a young team. We tend to be very up and down which you expect with a young team. Sometimes we play extremely well sometimes we don't. The main thing is when you go through stretches when you don't play very well is to try to stop the bleeding before it starts bleeding profusely.

I absolutely hate it. I just hate it. I don't want to hear any comparisons between me and him. Enough is enough. He had a brilliant career obviously one of the greatest careers ever if not the greatest and I'm here playing with my team and we're trying to do great things. Just let the past be the past. Just embrace what I'm doing. Stop trying to compare it to what he did. Just enjoy what's going on now.

I think it's a learning experience. We've learned we have to do a better job of closing those games. We'd much rather have won them, but we're not that far off. A play here and there and we're in a completely different position right now.

I was so frustrated with our last loss I said I'll fix it. Tonight I just wanted to attack and send a message. The reason I scored 62 points was because I wanted to win so bad. I just felt that I could continually attack these guys. It's a great feeling that I could do it here in front of our fans and give them an early Christmas present.