Here at the Pepsi Center in Denver, there is baby blue with dark blue and yellow highlights everywhere, including - of course - on Denver’s uniforms. In related news, I chose to wear a baby blue shirt with a yellow tie featuring light and dark blue stripes. Nice thinking Mike. Good job … idiot.
On second thought, at least I won’t be victim to a random haymaker from a irate fan should L.A. do to the Nuggets what it did in the playoffs last year. So I’ve got that going for me.
You know those “Thunder Sticks” that are now so popular across professional sports? Pepsi Center’s littered with glow-in-the-dark blue sticks, which could not be any more annoying. They lights will be useless after the starting lineups are announced, but admittedly, they do look somewhat cool.
I was expecting a cool highlight package with motivational music to open the season in Denver, but instead, we saw a short video of a few of the Nuggets asking if the crowd were ready for the season, and then some rapper I’ve never heard of came out and performed a song I’ve never heard of. Unfortunately, even the Denver fans didn’t listen to the “Put your hands up!” pleading of the rapper whose name I’m trying to figure out. Sorry, gotta give the Lakers’ game operations crew a massive edge on pregame stuff.
One more important note: ‘Melo shaved his braids.
First Quarter
Starting Lineups
Lakers: Fisher, Kobe, Vladi, Pau and Bynum
Nuggets: Anthony Carter, AI, Carmelo, Kenyon Martin and Nene.
Inactives:
L.A: Sun Yue, D.J. Mbenga
Denver: Don’t worry about it (Sonny Weems, Chucky Atkins)
Without any question, this was L.A.’s worst start since the Clippers preseason game a few weeks ago, complete with three turnovers in the first two minutes and three missed layups that allowed Denver to jump on top early. Yet after six minutes, L.A. led 16-12 after Gasol’s eighth point of the period. In fact, Gasol scored six straight points in a two-minute stretch as he continues to rarely miss if given any kind of space, and Bynum dominated the paint with five rebounds to keep the Nuggets to one shot per possession.
As the quarter continued, L.A. continued to force feed Pau on the block, since Denver’s rather small Camby-less lineup has no one that can begin to check him, and Gasol responded with 11 first-quarter points along with nine from Kobe. The defense for L.A. continued to impress, particularly in the paint and even more pointedly on the glass, as L.A. grabbed 19 boards to just 10 for Denver, which explained L.A. getting 13 more first quarter shots than the Nuggets. Had they only made more than 31 percent of their looks, the Lakers would have taken much more than a 23-21 lead into the second.
Side Note: Does anyone else think that “Air ball” is the least creative and most overrated crowd chant in basketball? The appropriate counter point is that the chant is supposed to stay in a player’s head as the crowd reminds him or her of their air repeatedly, but I’m prrrreeety sure it doesn’t bother Kobe (who air-balled an end-of-the-shot-clock contested three). He’s probably going to be fine. Much funnier to me was a random “You suck Birdman!” yelp from a dude behind me that was mad when Chris Andersen couldn’t convert a dunk as Odom fouled him.
Second Quarter
Tu quieros mis manos en tu cabeza? That’s a Spanglish version of what Pau meant to say after dunking on three Nuggets after the Denver crowd had booed him for falling down and drawing an offensive foul on that same possession. The rest of the players traded hoops for seven minutes, leading to a 37-36 Lakers lead at the 4:02 mark. Which is odd, because not only have the Lakers played very poorly this period, but Bynum, Odom and Bryant are all on the bench with three fouls. After Kobe checked out, the Nuggets took their first lead of the period on an Anthony Carter three that made it 41-39, then Melo drew a foul in transition but missed both free throws to remain scoreless, before Josh Powell scored on the other end to pull things even. However, the Nuggets went on a 11-5 run to close the half up 52-46.
In one way, it’s not surprising that L.A. struggled in the second, since the players on the floor had really yet to play together much this season. Due to the foul trouble, Gasol stayed on the floor with Vladi and Fisher, who were joined by Vujacic and Powell, and the Lakers weren’t able to establish any kind of rhythm on either end of the floor. Then, as Vujacic notched his third foul, this was L.A.’s lineup to close the quarter: Gasol, Powell, Walton, Fisher and Farmar. Huh? When has that group every played together, even in practice? The bottom line is that once Phil’s able to set his rotation back in order in the second half, the Lakers should be just fine. Plus Montell Jordan’s singing “Get It On” at halftime. It’s one-on-one tonight, baby.
Sidenote No. 2: After a perfectly good call from the officials as Kenyon Martin knocked the ball out of bounds, the fan to my left had this to say: “If the Lakers win, it’s because of the refs.” Just thought you’d want to know why L.A. had won if they win. Thanks a lot.
First Half Stats
Third Quarter
Bynum didn’t take long to commit his fourth foul, which meant Odom checking in at the 11:04 mark. Not a bad big to bring off the bench though, right? That’s like when Burger King’s closed at night, but Taco Bell’s open next door. You’re all good.
Gasol picked up his first double-double of the year by grabbing his 10th board about halfway through the third quarter, which saw Denver post a 70-62 lead at the 4:25 mark before Bryant converted a three-point play and Vladi bombed a triple from Bryant on the next possession to cut the lead to two. That ought to make Ty happy, since his fantasy team’s named Radman’s Rain Men. My name is from “The Hills,” but is also inappropriate, so I can’t type it here. What would make me happy is two crispy tacos (meat only … with hot sauce).
One thought that pops up is this game is that it’s already a good teaching game for L.A.’s coaching staff, who can tell their players that they can’t expect to win simply by showing up in another team’s gym. Sure, I mentioned all the reasons why it’s been an odd contest, but the fact remains that every NBA team’s talented enough to win on a given night in their gym. Of course, if the Lakers go on a big roll and cruise to a victory in the fourth - which is a distinct possibility with ‘Melo and AI looking anything but themselves - the message might not stick as firmly to the wall.
On the floor itself, with the scored tied at 76 after consecutive Trevor Ariza-inspired buckets, Denver turned the ball over on consecutive possessions to give L.A. a shot to take the lead back in the final seconds. However, Farmar turned it right back and things were all even heading into the fourth. L.A. managed to cut the six-point deficit rather easily, and seems to be on the verge of actually playing like the Lakers.
Fourth Quarter
If you’re the Lakers, you had to like this early-fourth matchup: The Birdman guarding Bynum. The first time L.A. went to it, Bynum drew a foul and made both shots. Of course, Bynum committed his fifth foul on the next possession, prompting Karl to put Nene back in to no doubt go at the big fella on subsequent possessions. And so they did, but Bynum swallowed up Nene’s driving attempt on the next Denver possession - clearly not what Coby’s dad had in mind.
Ariza continued his excellent play this season by scoring five-straight points (including a corner three, his fifth make in six tries this season) to put L.A. up 84-82 before a timeout at the 8:45 mark. Two Odom free throws gave the Lakers a brief four-point cushion before consecutive Nuggets buckets tied things up at 86 and forced a Jackson timeout. Now, if I were, say, Farmar sitting there listening to Phil right now, I’d want “The Way I Are” playing on the loudspeakers to get me going. Don’t tell me you ever got sick of that beat. It’s too good. And if you heard it, wouldn’t it help on the fast break?
Well it wasn’t an issue, because Fisher and Gasol checked back in.
So, how did the Lakers close the gap this half and get the lead? I think more than anything, it was simply having some continuity on both sides of the floor with the lineup, which allowed them to actually run effective sets. That, and the complete stinkbomb from Anthony, who had … wait for it … two points in 33 minutes with 5:01 left.
Then came Kobe.
After that same timeout, Bryant stroked a three, grabbed a steal and stuck a jumper to make it 91-86 Lakers, surprising no one in the building. He did miss a free throw a minute later though. That was surprising.
Then, finally, came ‘Melo. First a deep two, and on the next possession a deeper three that cut L.A.’s lead to two. To be fair, his heat-check, contested three on the next possession was as good of an idea as trying to break into Burger King when it’s closed late night to make your own Whopper. Seriously, just go to Taco Bell!!.
Kobe’s slash to the hoop gave him eight points in the fourth, as many as he’d scored in the third, and 27 for the game with 2:54 left and a four-point Laker lead that became a seven-point lead after AI missed two free throws and Fisher hit a huge, huge triple. Don’t ever say Fish isn’t clutch…
But back to Kobe: this is the first time I’ve seen him take over a fourth quarter in person, and it’s really quite remarkable. Particularly on a team that could stick it to the Nuggets by isolating Gasol or Bynum on the low block, Bryant still manages to get the best possible shot for his team just by being a lot better than everyone else. A gorgeous spin move and finish in the lane was the dagger if Fisher’s three weren’t.
Two free throws gave Kobe 31, and two worthless ‘Melo threes simply weren’t enough to get Denver back in the game … And that makes me even more mad, since Ty has Melo’ in fantasy against me and just tied me at 15 threes for the week. Whatever. Focus Mike.
Lakers win, 104-97.
