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NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: NUGGETS v LAKERS

May 21, 2009

Phil Jackson

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Game Two

Denver Â– 106
Los Angeles - 103

COACH JACKSON: Well, not quite the same game but almost, different ending. Unfortunate situation that happened off that jump ball kind of changed the makeup of that game, missing some free throws down the stretch kind of changed our advantage point in the game.
But that was a pretty evenly matched contest tonight.

Q. I asked this of Karl last game. You had the other team reeling for a minute and seemed to get away from you, or at least the Lakers, what happened?
COACH JACKSON: Poor closeout in the second period, really poorly done by our team. We had a couple turnovers. Couple things we didn't have to make, they got a couple of offensive rebounds and capitalized on it and made a big difference in their game.

Q. Seems relatively evenly matched at least to two games. Is it going to come down to one or two possessions? Is that really what execution --
COACH JACKSON: I don't know. You can't just tell by these two games here. They play at a different level on their home court. We're going to have to be able to be prepared for that and they've shown us that they've been able to come to our court and play us tit-for-tat.

Q. When they came back, took out a 13-point lead in about two minutes and 40 seconds, do you think that took something out of your team because they didn't look the same in the second half?
COACH JACKSON: I don't know. I might disagree with you on that. I thought it invigorated them, got them going again. We got some turnovers and some things we did against them that I thought was pretty effective. Gave them some confidence in what they wanted to run and they got going a little bit. Defensively I thought they were better, too.

Q. Looked like on that last play, Fisher was the primary guy and Kobe was a decoy to take the defensive away. Is that correct?
COACH JACKSON: I thought they'd foul Kobe. They were just naturally going to go foul him. I thought Fisher would be open for the shot. We'd have a 3-point opportunity as opposed to having to foul and going to the free-throw line and manufacture three points.

Q. Your lack of production from the point guard position, was that more of them doing it or are you guys not being able to execute tonight?
COACH JACKSON: I really think that Fisher took some tough ones. He got going to the basket, had some tough opportunities out there. Not a whole lot of open opportunities as far as shots go. Other than that, Jordan played limited minutes and Shannon played pretty limited minutes.
I thought Sasha came in, looked like he was looking for his own shots sometimes rather than looking to move the ball and do the right thing and so I limited his minutes a little bit.

Q. You pulled Derek after I think two or three drives or forays into the paint that didn't work out. Is that something where you talked to Derek about look for, Wait for your shot, or is it just you trust him as a veteran to do his thing?
COACH JACKSON: Yeah, he knows what's going on in there. There was a foul situation in there and Nene was sitting in there and he was going to challenge him, see if he can put him in foul jeopardy and there was no call on that situation. That was one of them. That was an unfortunate situation. We didn't capitalize on a good opportunity.

Q. In terms of the physicality that Denver exhibited in this game and the way Chauncey -- he closes games, is this team beginning to remind you at all of the Piston team that Chauncey was a part of in terms of the way they play or finish or any reaction?
COACH JACKSON: No, they don't. But if Chauncey gets 16 free throws in a game we're in trouble, that's for sure. We can't allow him to get 16 free throws in a contest. That's like giving up 15 points. Those two guys, between them, Carmelo and Chauncey had a lot of free throws.
But he did get those kind of free throws in our series against Detroit back in '05. But that's an entirely different team with Hamilton running off screens and all that stuff.

Q. Can you expound on the unfortunate situation of the jump ball you mentioned what did you see on that exchange?
COACH JACKSON: Looked to me like Anthony pushed on Trevor and Trevor tried to get rid of the ball, and no foul was called and they recovered the basketball. Trevor tried to get rid of it because he was afraid he was going to be called.

Q. You started the fourth with Kobe and pulled him after a couple of minutes. Were you feeling out whether or not you could get through the entire fourth with him and how hard is it to manage his minutes?
COACH JACKSON: He made a play that got his fourth foul, the one you're talking about.

Q. And the play with missed communication on Billups I guess when he went to the line?
COACH JACKSON: Yes, he took a couple of -- kind of disconcerted him in that particular part of the game. I just thought he needed a mental break to get himself back. We didn't respond very well when we came back with our second unit out there. They had a little separation with us at that time.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach.

End of FastScripts

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