Barring injury, barring something crazy happening, I definitely think we're a playoff team. I think we're a team that certainly has a good chance to get home-court advantage in the first round.

From an offensive standpoint, it's probably the deepest team we've had since [2001-02].

There are always extraneous things that come up every year, off-the-court things, on-the-court things, ... Those type things are more excuses than distractions.

Lawrence has a track record here. Nobody works harder. He has terrific game plans. We just need to execute our plans better and play better. Lawrence can't go out and play for guys.

It was a confidential conversation, and I don't really want to comment on it.

Obviously we weren't aware of it, and after all the conversations back and forth, I don't think the player was aware there was any problem. He hadn't missed any games regarding this. To my knowledge, [Portland] wasn't aware of it.