|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: NUGGETS v LAKERSMay 20, 2009George KarlLOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Practice Day Q. I read where you said there's no such thing as a moral victory during the playoff. What can you tell us from the standpoint of last night's game? COACH KARL: The positive standpoint to me is we played a hell of a game. And we competed the right way, did good things both ends of the court. And I feel so -- I just feel bad because I just think in finishing the game, I had a lot -- I wish I could have done better at, and I think our players wish they could have done better. We have two rebounding opportunities, 2-point lead under two minutes, that usually wins us a game. And we didn't do that. That's a little more on them. And then the turnover at the end of the game, I should never have called timeout. I wish I would have saved that timeout for later, but I thought maybe we could get a quick shot at the situation and get a 2-for-1. Q. You said all season long, the team, where are they emotionally at right now? COACH KARL: You'll see tomorrow night. We're fine. That's what I've been trying to say to people. This team is more mentally tough than we are giving credence to. Yeah, we took the loss hard last night. But it will be very easy to get ready for tomorrow. They played hard and well at both ends in a lot of different ways. We have maybe 20 possessions that we know we can play better. And that's what playoff basketball is, how you tune into your mistakes and keep your positive stuff going in the right direction. Q. (Indiscernible)? COACH KARL: I think in general the defense on Kobe was we had like five or six possessions where we give them a cheap basket. So that gives them 12 points. And then he gets 13 free throws. So that's 15. I think basically when we're solid on him and defending him without mistakes, without kind of taking chances and Dahntay pulls away, gives him a layup. A.C., goes through a steal -- we have one mess-up on the post where he gets a layup. The guy he had 25 touches underneath the free-throw line. So they were definitely trying to get him in in the paint and underneath the basket. That surprised us a little bit. But, again, it was the cheap baskets, the layups and the cheap baskets where you go for a phantom steal and you give them a layup. So in general I was not totally disappointed in our defense on them. Our defense on Gasol and Bynum were great. That was a great feel for it. They had eight different guys make up for three. So we really didn't lose one guy. We kind of, some of the double teams on Kobe is going to give them some 3s and they made them. They made almost every 3. We had three swings in the game where we have a 2-on-1, Chauncey pulls a 3. Misses it. They make a 3. We have 3-on-1 were J.R. misses a layup and one where they make a 3 at the other end. And we had another easy break situation in the fourth quarter that we missed and blew, choked, and Kobe came out, made a 3-point play. We had like seven points and they got nine points. We missed seven and a half. So there's some home run plays in there. But, in general, I think we'll come out and play better. I trust my team's going to play as hard or harder than they did last night. And I think we're just going to go out and figure out if we go home 1-1 and give our home crowd that opportunity, it will be a good day in Denver. Q. In the fourth quarter, Kobe seems to have spent a lot of time. A lot of it he seems a mentally tough guy, is that why he does so well in the fourth quarter so often? COACH KARL: Again, he's by far, he and Chauncey are the most experienced guys on this stage. And we have five or six guys that have never been on this stage before. They have Bynum that's never been on this stage before, and I think there is a period of adjustment before you become comfortable, and I was very proud of Melo because he was fantastic. He was special and I was disappointed at that performance. End of FastScripts |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|