Anthony then leaned forward, looked up at the media gathered before him to inquire about his team's energy and effort needed for Game 4 of the Western Conference finals against the Lakers and closed his eyes for a brief moment.

"I'm tired," Anthony repeated.

Both teams were weary from Game 3, from pushing each other to the limit in all three intense close games, from just knowing they still have to summon more energy for tonight's game at the Pepsi Center.

"Oh, we're going to find it," said Anthony, knowing his team must because the Nuggets trail, 2-1. "It's going to be there. We're going to find it. Regardless of what happened last night, how much energy we exerted, we're going to find energy to go out there and try to win that game tomorrow."

Kenyon Martin sat at his locker, the pain registering on his face while the Nuggets' trainer taped his fingers to a splint to protect a fractured ring finger on his left hand.

"Everybody has something that's hurting them," Martin said. "But it's mind over matter."

That's where Nuggets co-captain Chauncey Billups stepped into the fray.

He acknowledged that both teams are probably tired, worn down from the postseason.

But Billups also knows that his Nuggets have to push through this.

"Other than just everybody being just a little tired, that's just an excuse," Billups said. "You've got to get out there and bust it no matter what."

Denver Coach George Karl talked to his team Sunday, a few others talked about the task ahead and then the Nuggets watched some film of the Game 3 defeat.

They came to the conclusion that they must be smarter and that they relied on the three-point shot too much. Billups said the Nuggets were "taking chances trying to hit the dagger" against the Lakers in hopes of putting them away.

Denver was five for 27 from three-point range, one for eight in a fourth quarter in which it made only 22.7% (five for 22) of its shots.

Then there were the senseless three technical fouls that gave the Lakers three easy points.

"The little things [like] our mental competitive maturity," Karl said. "We went below the line with the technicals.

"I think we got caught up in the emotion of the moment, a great crowd, a great challenge and I think we tried to hit too many home runs rather than just take a single here, a double there and win the game that way."

The Lakers also did a much better job containing Anthony, holding him to 21 points on four-for-13 shooting. He had averaged 36.5 points in the first two games.

"They probably doubled me a little bit more," Anthony said. "But they didn't do anything differently."

The Nuggets have lost two close games and won a close game.

They don't expect Game 4 to be any different.

"It's a must-win, definitely a must-win," Martin said. "We don't want to go there [to Los Angeles] down 3-1. We don't want to put all the pressure on one game out there. So we're at home and we want to take care of business. It's a very important game for us."

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broderick.turner@latimes.com