"It just seems very frustrating for me to sit here and have to worry about every - like it's the gamesmanship in the press conference on refereeing," Karl said after the Lakers won 103-94. "I just wish it wasn't. That's not part of coaching for me."

Jackson was fined by the NBA for comments he made about the officiating after Game 4. He said: "That kind of disparity we don't like in ballgames. That's not equal refereeing, and those are the things that changes the courses of games. We don't like that. We want the game to be fair and evenly played."

The result, in the Nuggets' eyes, was a crew that saw things the Lakers' way Wednesday.

"(Carmelo Anthony) got beat up," Karl said of the Nuggets star. "The same type of attitude and actions that we had that got us to the rim and got us a lot of easy baskets, tonight they defended better, at least from the standpoint of the scoreboard.

"The stat sheet says they defended it better. They blocked more shots. We didn't get as many paint points. But I'm not sure that's the case."

The fourth quarter was particularly lopsided in fouls called. The Nuggets were whistled for 11 fouls in the period, while the Lakers were called for four. The Lakers shot 16 free throws in the period and made 13. Meanwhile, the Nuggets shot seven and made them all.

Asked about the officiating, Nuggets players clammed up in order not to be fined.

"I'm not trying to get fined," Kenyon Martin said. "Because if I start, I ain't going to stop. I already gave them $25,000 (for a flagrant foul in the Dallas series)."

Said Linas Kleiza: "I wish I could talk, but I enjoy having my money in the bank. I think Coach might have addressed it. It's not my place to address it."

Asked if the game was as physical as any so far in the series, Kleiza said: "We try to be physical like we always are. Maybe we were too physical, because there were way too many fouls called. So we've got to adjust to it."

The Nuggets have been called for an average of 28 personal fouls per game in the series, while the Lakers have been called for an average of 26. The foul disparity went from 31 on the Lakers and 24 on the Nuggets in Game 4 to 30 on the Nuggets and 22 on the Lakers on Wednesday, two days after Jackson's comments.

"Phil is so much better at it than I am, so much more philosophical about the whistle and how it changed," Karl said. "I don't know. Nene has six fouls. Three or four of them don't exist. I think Stan Van Gundy says it right: In the postgame, we're lobbying for the league to help us with the refereeing. This is too good of a series. This is too good of teams competing that we're sitting here just confused by the whistle."

Chris Dempsey: 303-954-1279 or cdempsey@denverpost.com