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NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: NUGGETS v LAKERSMay 27, 2009Carmelo AnthonyLOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Game Five Los Angeles – 103 THE MODERATOR: Questions. Q. Carmelo, has it sunk in that this amazing season could be over if you don't win the next game, what that says, that's just big-time motivation? CARMELO ANTHONY: We're not thinking like that. We're going to go home and do what we gotta do. Go home, play hard, continue to play the way we've been playing. A lot of intensity. Me personally, I thought we played extremely hard tonight. They won the basketball game. Can't take nothing away from them. The same intensity on our home court, come Friday. Q. Carmelo, Coach Karl said you're frustrated in the locker room afterwards because of the calls and a lot of guys in foul trouble. To win this series you're going to have to come back here in Game 7. How much of this stays in your heads in terms of the -- CARMELO ANTHONY: It's gone now. Nothing really we can do about this game. It's over with. No need for us to complain about no refs, no calls. For what? We still have to go out there. We've got Game 6 in Denver Friday. Go home, take care of business and come back here. That's something we're looking forward to. That's why we played the game of basketball. It's going to be tough nights. It's going to be tough times. It's going to be calls and stuff that we disagree with. We just gotta overcome all that. We can't worry about what calls we get or what calls we don't get. Q. First of all, how are you feeling? Looked like your ankle didn't seem to be, at least from my perception, bothering you. And also have the Lakers geared their defense more towards you as the series progresses, become harder for you to get your shot off? CARMELO ANTHONY: First of all, my ankle is still a little sore. I'm fine. But it felt good tonight. The Lakers ain't going to let me beat them. That's just the way it is. Every time I get it, I'm seeing two, three, four people at a time. So I take it as a sign of respect. If they was out there and backing off of me and not even worrying about me, then I take it as disrespect. But to have three, four guys looking at me at one time and on me every time I touch the ball, that's just a sign of respect for me. Q. They hurt you inside tonight. As tall as they are, you kept them from doing that the whole series. Is that a concern? CARMELO ANTHONY: The games that we've lost, they had an advantage on the inside. The games that we've won, we had an advantage. So it's been going back and forth. I think come Friday we gotta take that advantage back, being a little more physical inside, getting our big, keeping our big men out of foul trouble. I think that was key for us. We had to go to a smarter lineup tonight and they kept their big lineup on the court. So that kind of hurt us a little bit. We've got to do a better job of keeping our big men out of foul trouble. Q. Part of the mountain you have to climb now is a win Friday and a win Sunday. What makes you think you can get both games? CARMELO ANTHONY: If we're not confident and we don't think we can win both games, we shouldn't even go out and suit up Friday. It would be a waste of time. Our confidence is we're good. We're excited about this. This is exciting times. We're going home. We got a chance to win at home. And see what happens in Game 7. Q. There was a stretch from the middle of the third quarter to the fourth where they take the lead back and basically take over the game. Did you feel late in that third quarter their defensive intensity increased or was it something else? CARMELO ANTHONY: No, Gasol hit some shots. Lamar hit a 3. Shannon Brown hit a tough shot at the end of the shot clock, got the crowd into it. Got their momentum. And then all that they took the lead and they just controlled the game from there. Q. How much different is this Lakers team when Lamar plays like he did tonight? CARMELO ANTHONY: They're special. Lamar, when he's out there, he's a mismatch, especially at the 4. In that second unit, way he played tonight, hit the glass, pounded inside. When he plays like that, they're a tough team. So we gotta look forward to that for Friday. Q. Is it a motivation for you guys that for a first time in a few years this is an open race; there's no clear favorite to win the championship? The Orlando Magic can easily be in the Finals tomorrow. You too. Los Angeles Lakers, there's no one team that has a clear advantage. CARMELO ANTHONY: Right. That's why we're playing right now. We're a confident team. We're a humble team but we're a hungry team at the same time. As far as Orlando goes or Cleveland, we're not really looking at that series over there. We watch the game but we're not really worrying about that. We're focused on the LA Lakers. No one has a clear shot here. We win Friday and it comes down to one game. We have to leave it all out there on the court. But it's a must-win for us Friday. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. End of FastScripts |
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