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Sunday, the Los Angeles Lakers and Detroit Pistons will begin the NBA finals and play Game 1. On Saturday, here's what Gary Payton and Karl Malone said to the media about the upcoming championship series.

KARL MALONE

Q: Happy to be here?

Karl Malone: Of course, considering what we went through this year, and what we are trying to do. But I don’t think it’s any more than that. We realize that nothing’s over until it’s over. People talking about those guys being underdogs, I don’t buy that. We’ve had two or three really good practices here. So, we are ready to go. We are going to bring defense to the game as well. We talk about Detroit’s defense … and I think it’s well known. But I also think we bring the same type of intensity.

Q: Was there a point where you thought you might not get to the Finals?

Karl Malone: Well, when I got hurt … everything goes through your mind. But I never thought once whether (coming to the Lakers) was the right decision or not. I did think sometimes that I didn’t know whether it would work out. I knew as a team that we had a really good team and that guys continued to pull for each other. We went from thinking about winning the series against San Antonio down 0-2 to just winning a game. That was our attitude and it’s our philosophy now.

Q: Do you have a different feel for the Finals than the first two you were in?

Karl Malone: It’s the same. Like anything else, I’ve been there before. I was two games away from winning and didn’t win it … twice. I’m kind of subdued now. It’s unbelievable to have an opportunity, after 18 years, to be there, again. But as far as anything different, it’s the same feeling: I didn’t really do anything. We got halfway up the mountain and didn’t win it. That’s my attitude right now.

Q: What do you think about all the media?

Karl Malone: I don’t know. You guys, I guess, have a job to do and you are doing it. I guess when you get to this point with just two teams playing right now, you can only talk about Smarty Jones so much. I’m not even a big horse race fan, but I know I’m looking forward to that. You’ve talked about it so much, I’m looking forward to going home and watching it.

Q: Do you think he’ll win?

Karl Malone: Who knows. But I’m going home and watching.

GARY PAYTON

Q: How ready are you to finally get this series started?

Gary Payton: We are ready to get this thing going. It’s about time. Only one more day left, got a couple hours now. This is the last practice then we have shootaround tomorrow so everybody is really amped up for it. We’ve been off for too long.

Q: Are you guys feeling good health-wise, going into tomorrow?

Gary Payton: Everybody is feeling good. It was great for us to have the five days off so that everybody can get their rest and their injuries, their little nicks and knacks, healed up. So it’s been good. It’s been a great two or three practices and we have been having fun out here. We picked it up a little bit yesterday. A lot of trash talking on the floor yesterday and we were having fun with that. It was nice and we played hard out there today.

Q: What is the difference between this year’s Finals and previous years?

Gary Payton: There’s a little bit more (anticipation). Being the favorites is a little bit better -- the players that I have around me. When I was in it the last time, I still had great players with me, but I think with these guys around us now … we’ve got a lot of confidence going into this series. But we still can’t just come out here with confidence. We’ve got to come out here and play this team. This is a good basketball team with a good coach. So we are going to come out here and fight. We are going to try to make it hard for them.

Q: You signed with the Lakers hoping for a ring and now you have that opportunity. Is this going the way you wanted it to?

Gary Payton: This is what I signed up for. I signed up to be in this situation and to win a championship and I’m here. I’m four games away, and now all I have to do is sit back and play the game. Hopefully, we will get four wins and I can say that I’ve won a championship.

Q: What do you anticipate the matchup with Chauncy Billups going to be?

Gary Payton: Well you know, he’s been getting better and better with each year. He was with Denver then he went to Minnesota and now here. He’s still a great basketball player and he’s got a lot of confidence going on with himself right now. Right now, I think he’s running the team the way Larry Brown wants him to run the team. I’m going to have to be really aware of him. He likes to take big shots. He likes to take threes. He likes to get down on the block. He likes to do a lot of the things I like to do, so I’m going to have to play close attention to him. We are going to have a good battle.