NBA FINALS: LAKERS VS. HEAT

October 9, 2020

Anthony Davis

Los Angeles Lakers

Game 5: Postgame

Miami Heat - 111, Los Angeles Lakers - 108

Q. Anthony, you've been on the injury report for a while with that heel. Just wondered what happened in the first and it looked like it might have got aggravated in the fourth, and how you're feeling at this point heading into the next game.

ANTHONY DAVIS: Iggy kind of stepped on it. Re-aggravated it. But I'll be fine on Sunday.

Q. Can you take me through the emotions of that last minute from your vantage point?

ANTHONY DAVIS: Good game. Trading baskets. We just needed one stop. They were trying to get me off of Jimmy. We were in our coverages. Great defender in Markieff guarding him. He made a tough two over a contested hand. Kenny has a three that goes in and out; it's in the rim. Two calls that could have went either way with Jimmy: the foul on Markieff and then the vertical play on me. Then we got a look at the end. Got a look at the end to go up.

It was a back-and-forth game. If we get one stop, they have to foul; then if we make free throws, we go home. But we've got to go get it on Sunday.

Q. You're a confident team. You came into this game expecting to win. You wore the Mamba jerseys and wore the gold shoes. There was a build-up to where people thought you were going to win this game. To be 21 seconds away and have the lead in the final minute, how did it feel to be that close and now know you have to do it all again in 48 hours?

ANTHONY DAVIS: It's basketball. It's the Finals. They wanted to win as bad as we wanted to win. So we've just got to go take it on Sunday. We had times to kind of break open the lead and we had too many breakdowns defensively, giving shooters wide open shots, not talking. They are going to make us pay every time. We have to be better on the defensive end.

But to be that close to accomplishing our goals, you know, like I say, we've got another one Sunday and that one we have to go get.

Q. When did you start dealing with this heel issue, and after you went out in the first quarter, did you feel like you got back into a rhythm or did it bother you the rest of the game?

ANTHONY DAVIS: It happened in the last series against Denver. I think it was Game 5 if I'm not mistaken. Iggy just re-aggravated it. Went out the end of the first and it just kind of just wore off and got back to normal. Just kept moving around. Just trying not to sit down. Get that adrenaline going and I was able to keep going and keep playing.

Q. I know you were just saying it's tough to come that close. After a game like this, what do you find is your approach? Do you kind of want to keep some of maybe what you're feeling as fuel? Do you try to even it out and feel like, hey, we have another shot? Where do you take your emotions with it?

ANTHONY DAVIS: We still have to realize we're up in the series, but we definitely use this as fuel. We wanted to come out and win the game, especially wearing those jerseys. But you come back, you look at the film, fix your mistakes and then come out in Game 6 remembering how close we were. If we don't make our mistakes, we win the game.

So you kind of use it as fuel, but we're still up in the series. We win one; they have to win two. We have to keep that in mind, as well. It's a tough one because we know we had this one in the bag.

Q. How do you handle the pressure heading into the sixth game against a highly motivated opponent?

ANTHONY DAVIS: I mean, there's no pressure. We're motivated, too. We are motivated to win a championship just as they are motivated. You've got two teams who want to compete. They feel like they have to win every game. We feel like we have to win. We're motivated, as well, to finish this thing off and hoist that trophy just as bad as them.

It's about execution. Like I say, it's plays that we broke down too many times defensively. If we don't have those plays, it's a different game. We have to be better on the defensive end and take care of what we've got to take care of. Duncan Robinson came up too many times wide open. Two four-point plays. Offensive rebounds. Stuff that we can control.

We're motivated to win Game 6 and they are motivated to win Game 6. It's not going to be easy, but we expect to win.