After the Monarchs practice Thursday, Kara Lawson dished on the team's upcoming schedule and the NBA Finals matchup between the Lakers and Celtics, which tips-off Thursday at 5:30 p.m. on News10.

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How do you prepare for five games in nine days?
Kara Lawson: That�s the nature of this league. So it�s not anything new for most of the players on our team. The biggest thing is when you�re about to start a road trip, you tend to overlook the home game you have right before the road trip. And sometimes when you come off a long road trip, you overlook the home game you have right after that. I think it�s very important for us to focus on this game on Friday and try to win, of course, but keep improving and keep getting better as a team so that we can feel like we�ve used these past two weeks that we haven�t had a lot of games productively and have improved."

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How do you feel about the past two weeks?
"It�s been good for us for so many different reasons. Not having to change time zones. We had so many people coming in from different places at the beginning. Injuries, of course, with Scho and Chelsea. Everyone now is settled in their apartments. Everyone has their routine down as a team. We�ve been able to have long, hard practices and get some good conditioning in. We've built on a lot of things where we weren�t preparing for an opponent. We were working on ourselves. You need those times throughout the season to work on yourself and get better within the system."

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What is your take on the NBA Finals?
"I believe the Lakers will win the series. I know it�s not a huge, thoughtful answer but I just think having Kobe�s presence puts them over the top."

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If he wins an NBA Championship without Shaquille O'Neal, where do you put him in the argument of greatest players of all time?
"I think it just moves him up to Shaq�s level. They won three rings together and Shaq proved he could win one by himself so to speak. He did have Dwyane Wade, but Kobe�s got Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom. Kobe has a lot of reinforcements as well. To me, it�s two guys that I�m not sure people will ever touch � Michael Jordan and Bill Russell. For me, those are two guys that everyone�s going to judge from the guard and big man perspective in terms of winning. It would take a lot to have Kobe reach that level. He�d have to win a lot more."

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How hard is it for players when they are compared to some of the all-time greats?
"I see it from both sides because I work in the media. It's a point of reference. You have to understand that people make comparisons for points of reference so that people can understand players better. The casual fan might not know how good Kobe is, so if you make a comparison that�s a point of reference so that fan can say, 'oh he must be good because he�s almost as good as Jordan, or almost as good as so-and-so.' I can see the benefit from the media perspective. But from a player�s perspective, I think it gets hard when a player is always compared to the same person all the time. Kobe�s always getting compared to Jordan so he must get sick of it. I�ve never experienced that as a player to where I�ve been compared to the same person every time, so I can�t say that I know that first hand. But I�ve been around players where people are like, 'you�re the next this' and I know sometimes it can wear on those players."

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