Lakers/Nuggets Game 2

Hey, did you hear that? What you ask. That. The sound of the Denver Nuggets imploding. The sound of time passing by because it is only a matter of time before they are out of the playoffs. Heck, there is the chance that they will be swept out of the playoffs. That’s right, I said it.

Sure the Nuggets have all of the talent in the world but they are a team filled with “head cases”. Example, Carmelo Anthony has all of the talent in the world but something is missing. What is missing? I think it is a level of maturity. He doesn’t handle himself well in high pressure situations and he tends to pout. This funky kind of attitude seems to be infectious because now AI is losing his cool. AI has been the one constant for the Nuggets in this serious thus far. Anthony Carter…I can’t believe he is still in the league. He complained that Kobe elbowed him in the face but wouldn’t acknowledge that he is to blame. The first step is accepting responsibility. What about JR Smith? He has tons of talent but too much attitude and well, I just think he is plain stupid. Let’s breatk it down. Why in the world would you want to jaw with someone who could totally go off offensively and deliver facials on each and every play? JR Smith doesn’t/didn’t seem to care. Look at what happened to Kenyon Martin. He jawed and jawed and what happened. Kobe still scored 32 points. And last night Kobe scored 49 points all the while dishing out ten dimes. When will the Nuggets learn?

To remedy this problem, Coach Karl should fine any players that decides to jaw with Mr. Bryant.

The only bright spot for the Nuggets was at the beginning of the game when they were playing with confidence. They inserted Linas Kleiza into the starting line up and had the Lakers on their heels. The only draw back with having Kleiza in the starting lineup is the fac that it took away some of their scoring punch off of the bench. Nene actually got some playing time off of the bench. With him in the game, that allowed DJ Mbenga to get some playing time and he performed quite well defensively and by grabbing some rebounds. We can’t forget that the Nuggets clawed back from double digit leads in both games only to falter and get blown out. We all know that clawing back from a large lead can be taxing and maybe expending so much energy to get back into the game took it’s toll.

During the game AI was guarded by Jordan Farmar, which is a tough task for any young guard AI’s size, but he fared well. He wasn’t great but he wasn’t bad. This is a great learning experience in deed. Farmar and Vujacic contributed with their D and with their often much needed scoring punch. They got a little trigger-happy with the threes but all in all we made a decent percentage of our threes. Phil should talk about chucking up threes early in the shot clock.

Pau Gasol started out slow but eventually got it going, ending with a double-double. And we can’t forget that he was part of one of the best highlights of the night. The alleyoop to Kobe on the out of bounds play. I was thinking they would score on the out of bounds play but not like that.

Unfortunately, Lamar Odom get the chance to play that many minutes b/c he was in foul trouble for much of the night. Kenyon Martin fouled out half way through the fourth quarter but it didn’t really matter. The Nuggets were toast by this time.

The past two games at Staples Center have been raucous. The fans were waiting for something exciting to happen and the Lakers delivered. Now the series moves to Denver and you know that place is going to be rocking. The Lakers shouldn’t get too lax because the combination of playing the Nuggets, playing where the air is thinner, and facing the Nuggets fans is going to be a daunting task but the Lakers are up to the challenge.

Miscellaneous: Luke Walton again had a stellar game scoring 18 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists. Pau Gasol had 18 points, 10 rebounds and 3 assists. Lamar Odom had 4 points, 4 rebounds, and 6 assists in only 22 minutes of action. The Lakers finished the game with 33 assists.

Game 3 is on Saturday at 2:30pm Denver, CO