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NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: NUGGETS v LAKERS

May 29, 2009

Carmelo Anthony

DENVER, COLORADO: Game Six

Los Angeles Â– 119
Denver - 92

Q. Give us your comments on the performance tonight. Was it too much Lakers and not enough Denver? How did the Lakers come to Denver with the enthusiasm that they showed tonight to beat you here at home?
CARMELO ANTHONY: I don't really know how they did it, but they came here and did it. They found the energy, they found the motivation to come here and close the game, close the series out on our home court. They couldn't have played any better than what they did tonight. They got production from almost everybody.
On the flip side of that, we played one of the worst games in the whole playoffs.
So you can't take away nothing from what the Lakers did tonight.

Q. Carmelo, from the way this series went and the playoffs went, does this kind of feel like the beginning point of your career and this team's career moving forward?
CARMELO ANTHONY: Yeah, I think this season -- it's a recap on the season. We came a long way as a team. And, yeah, for me personally this is -- I feel like a new beginning for me.
We've got the whole summer to think about this, see where we went wrong. Come back in training camp next season and pick up where we left off from. We don't want to take no steps back. We want to move forward from here.

Q. Do you feel like one of the perennial contenders in the West?
CARMELO ANTHONY: I think we've proven that. I think we've proven we're a top team in the west, in the NBA, period. We've just got to continue working hard. Continue keeping ourselves at that level. Of course, we thought we was one of the best teams. We are the best team in the Western Conference.
But we can always talk, we can say it all day every day, but until we go out there and beat the Lakers, they're going to be the best team in the West.

Q. Individually and as a team, what's the most important thing you learned this year?
CARMELO ANTHONY: As a team, I think that we all need each other. No one man can do it, nobody by themselves. We give Chauncey a lot of credit. We give Bird a lot of credit. But our team, we give ourselves a lot of credit. We came together as a unit, as a team and got through everything. We faced adversity throughout the season with injuries and all that stuff.
But for us to be here where we're at today in the Western Conference Finals, nobody ever expected that from us.

Q. Heading into the offseason, what is it you want to work on in your game to develop for next year?
CARMELO ANTHONY: It's too early for that. I want to soak this up real quick. I'm going to get back in the gym, but I ain't really thinking about that right now.
I know I'll be back next year stronger than this season.

Q. Are you disappointed with how you played, personally? Do you put some of it on your shoulders?
CARMELO ANTHONY: What I do -- I mean, what else you wanted me to do out there? I think the Lakers did a hell of a job making adjustments, shifting their defense, putting two, three guys in my face. I don't really like to look in the stats or any of that for me averaging 28 points or something like that against the Lakers in this series. That's tough to do. I don't know if you wanted me to average 30 or 35. I really don't know. I don't think there's nothing else I can do.

Q. What does this team need to go over the top next year?
CARMELO ANTHONY: We need to stick together. We need everybody back, we want everybody back. We want our same team. It took the Lakers a couple of years to get where they're at right now. They built it not overnight. It took time. I think that's where we see our team at right now.

Q. Is there one position that you see is lacking that you need --
CARMELO ANTHONY: That's not for me to discuss. I think we leave that up to the front office. We leave that up to the coaches. So in the summertime they've got a long time to think about that.

Q. This is the first time in your NBA career you've played on your birthday, is that a habit --
CARMELO ANTHONY: This is a terrible birthday present. But just to answer your question -- I didn't mean to cut you off, but I could get used to this playing on my birthday. I want to get used to it.

Q. Were you beat up towards the end of this series?
CARMELO ANTHONY: I was beat up, but I don't think that's an excuse. It is what it is. I have played beat up before. I've played injured before. But injuries and being beat up is no excuse right now.

Q. Talk about your performance. They had several Lakers on you and yet and still with three and four Lakers on you, you were able to get through their defense and score. You have to be pretty pleased with your performance, would you say?
CARMELO ANTHONY: Yeah, I mean, I was just trying to be aggressive. Trying to attack. Them guys, they're big on their front line. Gasol and Bryant and Odom. Not trying to shoot too many jumpers, trying to take it to them, try to get some fouls, trying to be aggressive and then look for the outside shot. So that was my main thing, not to settle for anything against the Lakers, because they capitalize off of that.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

End of FastScripts

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