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NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: NUGGETS v LAKERS

May 21, 2009

George Karl

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Game Two

Denver Â– 106
Los Angeles - 103

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. George, what was the difference between the first quarter which they controlled and the rest of the game where you guys seemed to get it together?
COACH KARL: Kind of reminded me a little bit of the Orlando game last night. We had to fight all through the first and second quarters, kind of get playing the right way and playing hard. We had stretches where our shot selection was killing us. And, you know, sometimes when we get bad shot selection, I think it almost creates a frustration that we don't play hard enough in the game.
And once we got back to the level of playing hard, I thought L.K. was fantastic for us, getting us -- not only did he make some shots, but he got us eight rebounds in the first half and it seemed like after we got in control of rebounding, we had a lot more confidence in winning the game, more confidence in winning the game.
And I want to kill Chauncey for missing that free throw. But defensively, Melo was on him a lot more. I think size, I like size on him as much as Dahntay, but it's just today we can be a happy team and, as I said this morning to you guys -- I mean this afternoon, our job was to make this -- try to scare you guys into it's going to be a long series. I think it's going to be a long series.

Q. What did your team learn between Game 1 and Game 2 about finishing games?
COACH KARL: We thought we made a lot of mistakes -- not a lot of mistakes, but we made some mistakes. We kind of hinged our fourth quarter philosophy on Kobe. We were going to jump him, but we weren't going to give him the 3 ball. We thought the two 3s they made in the fourth quarter when we had the lead, and I thought we did a better job -- I don't know if they had a 3, Kobe had a 3. But there's no one in the world that can stop that 3. That's going in any defensive player.
And we just felt the whole game was -- we penetrated the ball early. Didn't get the whistle. Got some of our -- but we settled for jump shots but then we went back to penetrating. And they play -- they're a good defensive team but we think we can get in the gaps and when we do we make things happen.

Q. Can you expand on Kleiza's contribution?
COACH KARL: Again, offensive was a plus. I thought he made 3s with spaces to court better. But I thought the big thing was rebounding. Seemed like we got in control of the rebound after he went into the game. And for us to win the rebounding battle points on the boards is an asset. That's probably our first priority is how do we control their rebounding.
They were killing us in the first quarter. They were pounding us. They had so many point paints. But I think we got back again into control and the layup, controlling the rebound.

Q. Did the calls bother you guys in the first quarter, having Dahntay out there in the third and fourth?
COACH KARL: Dahntay is a 15- to 18-minute player for us. I just wanted to keep the physicality. Andy, I didn't know -- I didn't want to put J.R. into the game real quick and put him on Kobe. And I think that's where Melo -- Melo was good offensively, but he was just as good defensively on Kobe. You don't stop the guy, but you have some control over his abilities.

Q. Did you get a sense when you guys came back at the end of the second quarter that it took something out of them that they didn't get back?
COACH KARL: I thought the game was flip-flopped. The game flip-flopped. In Game 1 we played very well in the first half and had a one-point lead and I thought they played very well in the first and had only a one-point lead. I think both games had a bit of a psychological, wow, we're playing good and we're only up by one.
That's the NBA, the momentum the 3 ball that L.K. threw in the second quarter. And, again, when we compete defensively, we usually play pretty well. And when we pass the ball offensively, we usually have a pride and a passion to play the game.

Q. When Chauncey did miss that free throw, it became a one-possession game for a win, what did you tell them and is that the defensive stop you wanted?
COACH KARL: First thing we wanted to do was switch out on things. I thought Nene got caught a little bit but he got out on to Fisher, trying to deny Kobe a touch. We didn't want Kobe -- because you can cover Kobe and he can still shoot. And if we had a chance to foul it, we were going to foul it.
But I don't think Fisher gave us that chance.

Q. You can look at the numbers and everything that happened in Game 1 and Game 2 but these teams looked relatively evenly matched. Does it just come down to execution and one and two or three plays in a contest like this?
COACH KARL: I think the two games have been pretty close. I think it's not necessarily obvious -- you know, they won one and we won one, the probably total score's is one point -- hopefully the home crowd will give us a little more room.
But my thing with them was what I said -- I told the team the same thing I told you all. After watching the game last night, I think the four best teams are playing. And everybody has a favorite. But I'll be honest with you, I think we're all pretty close. And I think the next two weeks is going to eliminate two, and after that someone's going to win a championship.
And I'll give LA to do that they were the team that was there, I'll give Cleveland to do because they won 60, whatever, a million games this summer. But I think Orlando and Denver are still going to fight awful hard.

Q. Could you just talk about the lift that Linas Kleiza gave you off the bench particularly in the second quarter?
COACH KARL: Did you miss that? I don't think we win the game without L.K.'s wild card. I call them wild cards. He gave us two wild cards: He gave us a scoring wild card and he gave us a rebounding wild card.
Deep down inside for me as the second half transpired, controlling the board, how we got in control of it, I have no idea other than begging them to rebound, begging them to, when five guys rebound, and somehow some way we sit here with more offensive rebound points than they do.
And I think if we do that we take away one of their big strengths.

Q. Earlier in the season when Bynum first got hurt you were quoted as saying you thought they were a better team without him. Do you still think that? And how much better do you think they would be right now --
COACH KARL: I don't know that I was quoted as saying that. I'm a Lamar Odom -- Andrew Bynum or Lamar Odom, if you pull 30 coaches all day, they might be 10-12-1, Bynum 10-12-1, Odom. They're both great players.
Size is important. And I know Phil, he's always coached big. But in the same sense Odom is savvy, and ball handling, we think their two best play makers are on the game, on the court are Odom and Gasol. And I think Bynum is great and he's going to be an all star some day, but I'm a huge Lamar Odom guy.

Q. (Off microphone)?
COACH KARL: I think you've got to ask Phil that question. Again, their presence of scoring paint points is as good as anyone in the league. They do it with post ups in size and rebounding. We do it a little more with penetration.
But a big asset for us is to try to keep them away from the rim. Try to keep -- they have this way of throwing over the top of your defense. They did it a couple times a night and they're great. Kobe throws it over the top. Gasol, Odom, they all play on a plane that you can't defend. It's very difficult to defend.

Q. How would you describe your team's fourth quarter defense?
COACH KARL: (Chuckling) the whole thing was there was just a demand that we had to win this game. There was an inner spirit. And I think, again, I've said from people mentally, we're a much more smart mentally tough team than you look at last year and what we are now, and, yeah, it takes time to do that.
But this team is -- I think they know what it takes, what it means to play hard and play with possessions and passion and it's a great win.

Q. You talked about the change in the rebound battle. Did you encourage some of your players at all maybe to back off the block attempts? Seemed like there were a couple plays where guys maybe stayed on the ground, did that help you at all on the weak side with put-backs?
COACH KARL: We've been trying to teach how to stop them from rebounding for the three or four days we had to prepare. It looked like we wasted our time after the first quarter.
The first quarter was, wow, but again we got in control of it. The film will probably tell me why we did. The big guys, when Shannon Brown drives in there, of course we don't want you jumping because you're going to give him a 50 percent chance of making a shot and Gasol is going to have a 50 percent chance of tipping it in, and I don't like my odds. I'd rather take a challenge shot in a rebound position. And I think the film will probably give us more opportunity to teach that.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach.

End of FastScripts

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