Many thought the series over when the Denver Nuggets sank into a 3-1 hole against the Los Angeles Lakers. Now they have the momentum ahead of an all-or-nothing showdown tonight in Staples Center.
The Lakers have more experience in the pressure-cooker of Game 7, having played in 23 of them, winning 15. The Nuggets are 1-1 in Game 7s, and their most recent was in 1994. But the young team were brimming with confidence after a 113-96 rout of the Lakers in Denver on Thursday.
"We knew that we could win and make the series longer, but not a lot of people believed that it would go to a Game 7," said Danilo Gallinari, the Denver centre.
Andrew Bynum, the Lakers centre, had irritated the Nuggets on the eve of Game 5 by suggesting "close-out games are actually kind of easy". Denver took additional umbrage at a message posted in the Lakers' locker room after Game 5: "Flight. 3pm. Pack for 3 games."
Mike Brown, coach of the Lakers, explained that it made sense to pack for an extended trip because the next round will start in Oklahoma City, where the Thunder await the survive of the Lakers-Nuggets series.
Brown denied the Lakers were victims of overconfidence, just poor execution.
Bynum suggested the Nuggets have seized the initiative. "They're playing a much more aggressive, much more of a dare-you type of defence," he said. "We're not responding or respecting them."
The Nuggets rookie Kenneth Faried sounded a note of caution. "We can't get too high off this," he said. "We have to stay focused."
The Lakers are hoping to bounce back from the rocky performance in Game 6 and find the swagger that suddenly has gone missing.
"It's a game where it's all about heart, all about bringing it," said Pau Gasol, the Spanish 7-footer. "That's what we're going to have to do to beat this team."
Metta World Peace will be back for the series finale.
The game on Thursday was the seventh and final game of his suspension for elbowing Oklahoma City's James Harden in the head last month.
They need him, said Kobe Bryant, who scored 31 points in Game 6 despite a bout of nausea so severe that he left his hotel room "looking like a scene from The Exorcist".
"He's the one guy I can rely on to compete and play hard and play with that sense of urgency, play with no fear," Bryant said of World Peace.
"I'm looking forward to having that on my side again."
Gasol and Bynum, the Lakers' big men, seemed to lack that urgency; between them they scored only 14 points.
"Kobe being dehydrated and all that and sick as a dog, coming out and trying to will us to a win, it's disappointing to watch him give that type of effort … and we don't get it from everybody," Brown said. "Our second and third-best players are Drew and Pau and the reality is both of those guys got to play better in order for us to win."
Gasol understood the frustration. "Obviously, we both want to contribute more - on both ends of the floor," he said.
"No excuses. We've got to go into Game 7 leaving everything out there, giving everything we have on every single possession and grinding it out. Obviously, this Denver team is playing well."
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