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NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: NUGGETS v LAKERS

May 25, 2009

Phil Jackson

DENVER, COLORADO: Game Four

Denver Â– 120
Los Angeles - 101

Q. What did you think of that rebounding disparity there? It was pretty obvious.
COACH JACKSON: Yeah, they beat us the ball numbers at times tonight.

Q. Cause for concern?
COACH JACKSON: It was tonight. I hope it's not on Wednesday night.

Q. Was there any thought in the fourth quarter, you were down big and you had Kobe on the bench already. Any thought to just sit him out the rest of the game and just get him ready for Game 5?
COACH JACKSON: You know, I really don't think 10-, 12-point leads are insurmountable, even in the last three minutes. I really don't think that's an insurmountable lead.

Q. Did you give Kobe and Pau more rest than normal?
COACH JACKSON: I thought Drew played well. Because he played well, he was out there. And I wanted Kobe to have that stretch. We were fine. We were seven points down one period there in the fourth quarter. And that's acceptable. We were doing fine.

Q. You talked about being as tired as he's ever been after Game 3. Is this something that your team has to worry about? What's the condition of your team? Are you guys exhausted? Kind of looks like it.
COACH JACKSON: If we were tired, it was noticeable tonight because their energy was better. That's perhaps the only thing I could say. But that's not a very good excuse.

Q. Obviously Andrew had a much better offensive game today. What did you think of the rest of his game, rebounding and defense?
COACH JACKSON: We just didn't get to the ball. The ball was coming off and they were beating us to the basketball a lot of times inside. Their offensive rebound disparity was quite obvious tonight that a lot of it was breakdowns, though. There was some action that created situations where our bigs had to go help so they weren't ready.
But Andrew, there's a couple plays in the first half. In the second half, start of the second half I wasn't really completely happy with the way he was playing. But he got determined. He went out there and played the kind of game we want to see him play.

Q. With five, six minutes left given Kobe's history the way he produces in the fourth quarter, as a coach do you have to just kind of accept that he's taking the ball and going to try to get you back in this game all by himself?
COACH JACKSON: We knew we were going to have to open the floor up and do that. So we operated in that sequence for probably five minutes. There were a couple different sequences we were operating out of. And when Carmelo got in foul trouble that took him off him and put Billups in. So those things change, yes.
But those are actions that we had to go to, drastic actions.

Q. Pau was 8-for-11 shooting tonight, do you need to get him the ball more, more touches, more shots?
COACH JACKSON: Yeah, we'd like to do that.

Q. Any reason why he didn't get more?
COACH JACKSON: No. You can ask him when he comes in about it. Some of it is ball movement. Some of it is their defense. Some of it is their help defense that's coming down. Some of it I'm sure is the amount of touches he's actually getting in the post.

Q. Do you leave here concerned or do you leave here thinking you won your game in Denver?
COACH JACKSON: What was the term T.J. used before the game? I was touting? He did say that, I was touting the fact that we won one on the road. No, made a big deal. I'm not going to make a big deal out of it. But what we've done is we've won the road game and brought the home court advantage back to LA.

Q. (Question off microphone)?
COACH JACKSON: Disappointed that we didn't compete tonight and give ourselves a chance.

Q. Is that symptomatic? You said disappointed but -- that's been one of the criticisms that this team doesn't always compete. Do you buy that?
COACH JACKSON: You know, basketball -- I'll explain it to you in deep terms. Basketball is a game that's the aggressor gets the advantage. And tonight we didn't know what a foul was and what wasn't a foul out there tonight.

Q. More the referees or --
COACH JACKSON: Start of the ball game we got guys knocked around going to the basket, they said we're going to let these things go. By the end of the ball game little fouls were being called all over the place. 49 foul shots in a sequence of a game like that. That's not how we wanted to play; that's not what we wanted to do in the game.
So what happens --

Q. (Indiscernible)?
COACH JACKSON: Just be quiet while you're standing there. You asked me a question, and I'll give you the answer.
So as the momentum changes in a ball game like that and the refereeing then becomes where you're always on your heels, guys are in foul trouble, then you are not the aggressor anymore. Then you're the guy that's defensively playing the game. And that's what I don't like.

Q. Are you saying it's the referees and not your team's inability to compete all the time?
COACH JACKSON: No. I don't think I said that. I think you're trying to put words in my mouth and I'm not going to let you do that.

Q. You're a big guy. You can speak your own words.
COACH JACKSON: I did. You're just trying to convert them into your words. So leave them be my words, all right?

Q. How big of a source of frustration is it that officiating is so inconsistent, it seems like, at the most pivotal time at least in your team's situation?
COACH JACKSON: The situation that got the game kind of out of hand, Luke came across the lane, got hit in the throat by Nene with an elbow, complained to the referee about getting hit in the throat with an elbow on his cut. And it was an off-ball cut. And the referee gave him a technical then subsequently gave him three consecutive fouls out on the floor.
That kind of disparity we don't like in ball games. That's not equal refereeing, and those are the things that changes the course of games. We don't like that we want the game to be fair and evenly played.
There's another situation out there tonight that was unacceptable by Dahntay Jones. Just unacceptable defense, tripping guys and playing unsportsmanlike basketball.

Q. You think he went out of his way to trip Kobe?
COACH JACKSON: Yes. It's not the first time it's happened in this series.

Q. What other game?
COACH JACKSON: Two other games.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

End of FastScripts

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