Denver forced LA coach Phil Jackson to play some aces just to escape with a narrow 95-89 win at home.
- Image by Getty Images via Daylife
Put it on your calendar: Thursday, April 8th, 2010 @ 8:30pm MST in Denver
That will land you on TNT for a nationally-televised showdown between the LA Lakers and the Denver Nuggets. The winner will take the momentum of the four-game regular season series into the postseason.
The Nuggets won the first two games of this series, the second a 126-113 overpowering of the Lakers in Los Angeles. Game Three started out all Denver on Sunday afternoon. It ended with a narrow home victory for LA on a night when they were forced to abandon their traditional triangle offense in favor of an inside-out passing attack. Kobe Bryant went from go-to-guy to Mr. Assist in a game where he shot 3-17 from the floor.
For Nuggets fans, I will say this: better now than in the playoffs.
Denver forced LA coach Phil Jackson to play some aces just to escape with a narrow 95-89 win at home. Phil & Kobe knew that if they didn’t find a way to steal this one, they were probably looking at a series sweep at the hands of the rival Nuggets. And steal one they did…
The Nuggets led by nine at the end of the first half. Denver took Bryant out of the game with the surprisingly stout defense of swingman JR Smith. And the Nuggets looked for all the world like a team preparing to wrest the Best in the West title from the Lakers three quarters of the way through the season. Then Denver’s ace versus the Lakers, rookie PG Ty Lawson, went down with a shoulder injury. Without Lawson, and with LA running a modified game plan on both offense & defense, the Nuggets saw their lead slowly fade as the Lakers dredged up just enough scores to manufacture the win.
It didn’t help that Carmelo Anthony took his 6th foul on a phantom call in the offensive paint with just under three minutes remaining in the game.
NBA referees are notorious for serving up wins to Los Angeles with creative foul calling, and this game was no different. A league that celebrates superstars by gifting them with a competitive advantage blew just one whistle against Kobe Bryant. Melo must have been demoted before the game, as he was called for even moderately physical play throughout.
The good news for Nuggets fans is that Game Four is in Denver and will be nationally televised. With the exception of a certain notorious 2002 Game 6 and the less notorious 2006 Games 3-5, the NBA is pretty sly about their big-game fixes. The Nuggets should win the season-series versus the Lakers, and set themselves up for an epic showdown with the NBA Champions in the Western Conference Finals.
