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NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: NUGGETS v LAKERSMay 26, 2009Carmelo AnthonyLOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Practice Day CARMELO ANTHONY: I think what he's doing, a lot of people don't really know his game, don't know his story. They know a little of it. But coming from his mouth, him and only him, nobody else could explain it. Q. Why do you have so much interest in it? CARMELO ANTHONY: Because I think everybody needs, especially in our situation, with athletes alone, it's just a message and it's a moving story. It goes to show you, you could be at the top at one point in time and then it's one of those things you could be at the low of the low. You can have everything in the world and then -- it's a strong message in that story. Q. You have a lot of tattoos, but would you ever get a face tattoo? CARMELO ANTHONY: No. (Laughter). Q. How are you feeling today? CARMELO ANTHONY: I'm feeling a little beat up, but getting some treatment now. I'll be better in the next 24 hours. Q. How about the stomach? CARMELO ANTHONY: The stomach feels pretty -- a lot better. I think it was just a quick virus that I caught. It's not bothering me anymore. Q. Take us through the series and the ankle and how -- now, which ankle did you hurt now in Game 2? CARMELO ANTHONY: It was my left. My left one's fine. My right one's a little sore. Once I get some treatment it will be better. Q. How did you come down on it? You were guarding Kobe the first time. CARMELO ANTHONY: Two, man. Q. Talk about the two times when you had to leave the game, how you came down wrong on your ankle? CARMELO ANTHONY: I was trying to deny Kobe. He made a move off the ball, and I made the wrong move. I tried to react to his move and I twisted my ankle. Q. Then you came down on it? CARMELO ANTHONY: Then I came down. It was before that. Kobe went to the hole and shot a fader and I tried to contest the shot. I came down on it. It was hurting since then. Q. How determined are you to bounce back in Game 5 in LA? CARMELO ANTHONY: Me? Q. Personally, you. CARMELO ANTHONY: I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm not worried about me. I'm fine. We won, so I'm not really -- Q. How big is Game 5? CARMELO ANTHONY: Game 5 is bigger than Game 4. We're on the road. The Lakers just lost here. They're going to try to come out even more intense, a lot more energy, try to outwork us, try to outplay us. We're trying to do the little things that we did to win the game last night. Q. Birdman used the word "enormous" in saying how big tomorrow's game is; do you have a synonym to that? CARMELO ANTHONY: It's a big game. You can't downplay that. This is the playoffs. This is a big game. Game 5. So we are going to go in there, try to win. But it's a very big game. Q. Your work is just getting started because you still have to win in LA to win the series. CARMELO ANTHONY: It's even. I think we can go out there and get that game. We won Game 2 out there. Our confidence is high. Q. Do you think your confidence is higher because you managed to beat them with you sort of half there? CARMELO ANTHONY: Our confidence has been high. It didn't get shot or nothing like that. We believe we can go out there and win the game. Q. Where does your confidence as a team, where does it come from? CARMELO ANTHONY: We believe. We believe in ourselves. And as long as we believe in ourselves, everything else doesn't even matter. Q. Does it just grow over the regular season, or is it something else that's developed over the playoffs? CARMELO ANTHONY: It's grown. Over the seasons there's times we had to believe in ourselves, we've had to dig deep in ourselves and come out and win basketball games. Q. J.R. is obviously a dangerous shooter. But is he becoming a dangerous passer as well? CARMELO ANTHONY: I think yesterday he thought about attacking the rim more. Not just settling, getting everybody involved, Chris and Nene. And even Kenyon, to get him off the bench, we need that. Q. Obvious question, but why does another guy passing help you guys? CARMELO ANTHONY: Just open the court up for everybody else. You gotta keep an eye on him when you come in the game. With Nene and me and Chauncey, just another option we have. Q. Any concern about J.R. Smith's celebratory antics firing up the Lakers? CARMELO ANTHONY: We're not worrying about that either. We're going to go play basketball. Q. Their bench for the post-season, you guys have said this to a degree, you mentioned after a couple games, are you surprised the way you guys utilize your bench? In NBA history most teams, short of the rotation, you guys are going eight, nine deep? CARMELO ANTHONY: Right. We are just staying consistent. We've been that way all year long. Our bench has been a huge chunk of our success in the season. No need to stop that. Q. Is that kind of fun for you considering in the last few years in the playoffs your bench was a weakness? CARMELO ANTHONY: Yeah, I mean, it's a lot of fun. We talked about it over and over. Especially with J.R. and Birdman, that me and Chauncey are not going to win this series by ourselves. It's impossible. We need the bench to come do what they need to do. Q. (Question about the best way to take advantage of the Lakers team.) CARMELO ANTHONY: I think outworking them. Hustling. Getting the loose balls, rebounds. You know, diving on the floor and just winning the hustle game, I think, is big. Q. Each of your opponents so far in the playoffs has complained about the officiating at some point. Phil got on them last night after that game. Is that a good thing when the opponents start complaining? CARMELO ANTHONY: I should be complaining. (Laughter) I'm the one that should be complaining. But it is what it is. We play a lot. We play our game is to attack. That's what we do. When you attack, you're going to get fouls, you're going to get calls. I don't even know what the officials is doing. I should be complaining. Q. There seems to be a lot of hype, there's always the commercials, LeBron, Kobe, do you guys think you're getting the short end of the stick when it comes to your respect? CARMELO ANTHONY: No, we don't worry about that. We earned our respect. We love to see commercials with LeBron and Kobe. Everybody wants to see that final matchup. But we earn our respect. Q. Do you take it as a challenge personally you and Kobe going at it in this series? CARMELO ANTHONY: No, I don't think it's me and Kobe going at it. I think it's the Nuggets versus the Lakers. But I'll be subject to take that challenge me against Kobe. Q. Have you ever played golf with J.R.? CARMELO ANTHONY: I never played golf. I played it once. Q. Played with him or played once? CARMELO ANTHONY: I played once. End of FastScripts |
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