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NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: NUGGETS v LAKERSMay 22, 2009Pau GasolDENVER, COLORADO: Practice Day Q. What was going through your head when the game was over, and what do you feel you have to do different in Denver? PAU GASOL: Tough loss, obviously, when you lose at home in the conference finals. It's tough to swallow. But at the same time we played hard. We couldn't quite do it at the end and get it done. But we're looking at Game 3 now, focusing on that and trying to win it. Q. How do you feel you guys have done against the Nuggets' front four, generally speaking? PAU GASOL: They play well. I think their production has been pretty high, especially from Melo. Averaging 38.7 games something like that, 36.5, I think it's too high, way too high, in my opinion. We've got to do a better job trying to contain him and force him to take tougher jumpers, tougher looks. He's getting into a lane too easily and getting those offensive rebounds that are really hurting us in key possessions. And then the other two guys, they're taking advantage of penetration and keep guys in there, and they penetrate well. They're athletic; they're strong. They go out there and finish well. That's the bottom line. So we gotta work on a couple of things. Q. Can you draw any comparison, when you guys went into Houston, it was a 1-1 situation, drawing any comparison going into Denver 1-1? PAU GASOL: I don't know, that was a different series, different teams. Same result, 1-1, yeah. We lost Game 1, didn't lose Game 2. Again, every game is a different story. Obviously we'd like to be successful in Denver, play hard and play well like we're supposed to and hopefully get one win at least. So we'll see how it goes. Q. Are they doing a better job than other teams denying the ball in the post? Are you guys looking at that? PAU GASOL: Like I said last night, I think it's a little bit of both. They do a good job in Game 1 they did a good job on guarding the post and denying putting pressure there a lot and sitting back from the wing and allowing that post entry, getting to there a lot more, didn't get enough looks there. But we'll see what happens in Game 3. Hopefully we have to establish ourselves a little more inside. It's a good way to go, creates good spacing, creates aggressiveness from our bigs. And we can see we can do a good job there. Q. (Indiscernible)? PAU GASOL: Yeah, I think it is. They play with a lot of energy, gotta get used to the altitude there. And the crowd obviously is getting excited to be in the conference finals after so many years. So you can feel that. And hopefully we'll come out real hard, real aggressive executing and doing what we're supposed to do, kicking the crowd out of the game early, if we can, and give ourselves a chance to win. Q. Do you feel the altitude at all? PAU GASOL: We feel it more at the beginning than anything. And probably feel it more in Game 3 than Game 4. Your body gets used to it. But yeah, you can feel it a little bit. Q. How much better is their defense this year in the first round? PAU GASOL: They're better. They don't have that many breakdowns; they're more solid. They believe in it a little more or a lot more than they used to and obviously that's helping them out and making a difference. Q. (Indiscernible)? PAU GASOL: I'm okay with whatever. I'm okay with (indiscernible). I'm okay with being out there as much as my coaching staff wants me to be out there. I want to help my team to win and I'm doing my best. Q. You had some misses at the line. What was going through your head? PAU GASOL: Couple misses, they rolled out, hit in the back rim and they just came out. It happens sometimes. Unfortunately, there's times in the game that it hurts more than others. I made my next two. In that situation, you want to make them both so it gives yourself and your team a better chance to win the ball game. End of FastScripts |
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