Lakers Push Back, Beat Nuggets 96-87 to Win 1st Round

That’s why they play seven games.

As lame as the Lakers looked on occasion, they had enough superior talent to make up for their problems. The Nuggets have as many good players as the Lakers have, but the Lakers have the Big Three and the Nuggets don’t have a single player that is anywhere near any one of them.  So the outcome was inevitable but it was instructive to see how bad the local lads can look and to see some of their internal difficulties laid bare.

The Lakers won the decisive fourth quarter, 27-19, and it was during that time that it dawned on me for the first time since Game One that the Lakers really are better than the Nuggets. That hadn’t been clear in their wins, let alone their embarrassing losses. The Nuggets were never embarrassed; they just weren’t good enough.

The key to this game was shot distribution. The Big Three were all able to express themselves. Why or how they came up with this cool, old-school winning formula, I don’t know. They did it successfully two or three times earlier this season but then abandoned it each time. Kobe Bryant took 16 shots! When Kobe takes 16 shots, the Lakers win. Pau took 19 shots, Bynum took 15 shots, World Peace took 15 shots, Blake took 11 shots. Those five guys scored between 15 and 23 points. Textbook, baby.

Pau Gasol answered his critics with a dominating and relentless 23 points, 17 rebounds (11 on the offensive glass), six assists, four blocked shots, one steal and one turnover in 41 minutes. In the biggest game of the season thus far, Pau Gasol came up bigger than anyone.

Bynum missed a lot of shots (4-15) but was also dominating inside—16 points, 18 rebounds (nine on offense), six blocked shots, one steal and one turnover in 42 minutes. Twin Towers, indeed.

World Peace was a large presence on offense (15 points, 4-11 on 3-pointers) and perhaps more so on defense, upsetting the Nuggets’ flow over and over with his stifling man-to-man defense that included four steals, two blocked shots and only one turnover in 43 minutes.

Steve Blake played 29 minutes while Ramon Sessions played 19 minutes. I’ve been critical of that imbalance in minutes but last night, no argument. Blake hit 5 of 6 3-pointers and that was all the Lakers needed. Even though both teams shot 39%, the Lakers had an edge, hitting 11 of 24 3s, while the Nugs hit only 7 of 26.

Kobe’s modest 16 points but whopping eight assists, coupled with a must-win win, speaks volumes. Sorry, LeBron, to my mind, Kobe is the MVP of this league. LeBron is just another great all-around player. There are several of them in the NBA. But that’s not even close to what Kobe brings every night, all year, every year. Last night the greatest one-on-one scorer in NBA history scored a mere 16 points but created an environment in which his team-mates could, and did, excel. Here’s the difference: If LeBron scored 16 points in a Game Seven, the Heat would probably lose.

While Pau was the big gun last night, Kobe was the catalyst, making sure all the gears were meshing smoothly. After blowing a 16-point lead, the Lakers held their ground, pushed back, and wound up winning decisively. Impressive.

Nuggets Post-Mortem: They appeared to run out of gas after playing a bit over their heads for the last week.  Yes, they could run the Lakers ragged sometimes but they didn’t have a half-court game to go along with it. Nor are they big enough. Kenneth Faried, who should be coming off the bench with his incredible energy, is their starting power forward even though he’s listed at 6’8” and weighs only 228 pounds–and looks it. Yet there he was trying to guard Pau Gasol, a 7-footer with moves and, last night, an attitude. They also need a consistent scorer. Afflalo isn’t doing it at the off-guard and Gallinari, their small forward and biggest gun, was 1-9 from the field last night. Andre Miller was 1-10. JaVale McGee was 1-7. Corey Brewer was 2-9.  A team that normally has about ten turnovers a game and almost that many steals, last night had 18 TOs with five steals. The Lakers had 11 turnovers and 10 steals.

Now it’s on to Oklahoma City where the Lakers’ fatigue will be matched against the Thunder’s rust after nine days off.  After seeing the Lakers play well with bell-curve shot distribution, I’m eager to see if they (meaning mostly Kobe) will do it again or abandon it again.