The series certainly wasn't shaping up as Phil Jackson's finest hour. The starting lineup hadn't clicked at tipoff in the previous three games, with Games 4 and 6 beginning so badly you wondered if he spent the pregame showing a boring movie like "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button."
His squad couldn't put away the undersized Rockets. He violated coaching protocol by answering questions about the Denver Nuggets when there were still two games left to play in this series. He even had the audacity to complain about his injuries when Houston has Yao Ming, Tracy McGrady and Dikembe Mutombo in suits. He blew his vaunted cool once in this series, cursing in a news conference, and even said that he'd woken up an hour early on Sunday and was nervous before Game 7. Then he commented on that startling admission.
"I look it don't I?" he said, his face just as uncaring as ever.
And just like that, Phil was back to being Phil. The captain of cool.
"Teams tend to take the personality of their coach," Lamar Odom said. "And I think we have."
Jackson paced through the pregame locker room a little more than usual, like a teacher proctoring an exam, both surveying the mood of his players and acting as a deterrent to any goofing off.
As for his message?
According to Luke Walton, it was the "same thing as always, 'We know this team, they know us. If we execute and play defense for each other, then we're going to win.'
"And he was right."
Courtesy: ESPN
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