He’s very patient, … He takes his time with us. He’s what you call a team player right now.

Kirilenko must have thought he was in Salt Lake City tonight. A couple of times he made tough shots.

I want to play in the playoffs. I don’t want to be sitting at home and they’re saying, ‘Well, Lamar didn’t do enough.’ When we lose, especially when I don’t feel like I played the...

The hip-hop culture is part of the NBA, … It’s not going to leave just because we change what we wear.

So now that we go back home we’ve got to find a way to keep our ship afloat. In the second half of the season, every game is going to be towards gaining some playoff...

I’m disappointed to hear that because he’s my friend. Sometimes, we tend to do things at the spur of the moment that we wish we could take back because it hurts our image. But I’m...

This is a big road trip for us. We want to go in there [tonight], and it’d be a good time to play your best game of the year so we could keep it going...

We didn’t protect each other, … I actually had to go to an enforcer style, and that’s not my game. We were just really bad on team defense.

I’ll take the blame for that one. I got a little overzealous, I tried to get to the rack, and they got momentum from the charge.

Why would he do that?!

Without our best offensive player, we’ve got to play better defense.

Every game we play is going to be the biggest game of the year. … It’s in our hands. We can’t really worry about what other teams are doing.

This was not like having a cold or the flu, this was a complicated surgery. Some people lose their lives, not just their career. When you figure he’s been able to play for us, and...

That’s going to be his place in history. Right now, he’s really focused and feels like it’s his league. Before the 81 points, Kobe should have been getting his due as far as the MVP.

I think we’re not trusting one another offensively and defensively.

We get to have a light practice, lift a little weights, have a steak and relax a little bit.

We didn’t protect each other. I actually had to go to an enforcer style, and that’s not my game. We were just really bad on team defense.

They’re focusing on defense. You can tell.

Once he learns how to settle in … he will be all right. I try to tell him sometimes go easy and pick your spots … jab, jab, jab and then hook. But with him...

Right now you have a lot of power forwards who have small-forward athleticism and abilities,

We had the opportunity to beat this team by 25-30 points. We didn’t because they are well coached and they played hard. We kept doing the little things and got stops when we needed them.

That was a great move. He’s real athletic, so you can just throw the ball by the rim and he’ll go up and finish it. We’re trying to find him. He’s real aggressive underneath the...

I kept myself in the game by rebounding the ball. There’s a lot of ways I can help this team. I just got to play good basketball, be smart with the basketball.

It sounds good, something like that.

That’s just the way he is. He’s always been that way.

This is why you come out and work. You put your time out in the gym, and being a little kid from New York, shoveling snow, dreaming of one day playing in the NBA playoffs,...

Inside presence, being physical, that’s what we need from him. The guy’s got the best body in the NBA _ he’s got to throw it around a little bit.

[The Lakers’ weakness in the paint isn’t lost on the team.] It’s my job to take some pressure off [Bryant] as far as making plays, … I wasn’t able to do that tonight. That won’t...

[Like teammate Caron Butler a year ago, he seems destined to finish third in Rookie of the Year voting despite impressive stats. Through Monday, he ranked third among rookies in scoring (16.2 points), third in...

I’m pretty sure if I can be on the court the majority of the time, if Kobe can be on the court most of the time, if we can stay healthy, we can make the...

The time off was good for the mind and body. I was just more aggressive tonight.

Different tricks of the trade, different ways to get open, different ways to play defense, different ways to play the game. He knows the triangle inside-out.

His ability is amazing, and his will is amazing.

I’ll take the blame for that. I should have let the clock run down more. It was a flop call on a team that was dead. I gave them life. He drew the charge, that’s...

We played a great defensive game against Detroit, a great defensive game against Oklahoma (New Orleans) and San Antonio, and we do the little things that it takes to win big games. Then we come...

I think that’s the strength to my game, … I’m not one-dimensional at all. I’m comfortable wherever he wants me to play on the court. I kind of pride myself being able to play any...

That’s too many points on your home turf. We got caught up probably playing their game a little bit.

He’s extremely disrespectful. I’m just going to leave it at that. It’s dudes like that why things happen off the court between players and their friends and things like that. … He needs to watch...

The third quarter is really biting us in the butt. It’s a team defensive thing we’ve just got to fix.

He raises the I.Q. of your basketball team ? he helps us tremendously,

His mouth is horrible and atrocious.