Lakers-Nuggets Game Two, Second Half: That Only Took 24 Years

Before the start of Game Two, ex-Lakers GM Jerry West made some small waves by talking about how, in his opinion, LeBron James was now a better player than Kobe Bryant. Bryant didn't give the story any extra air, because Bryant is a savvy veteran, but the Laker faithful were less than thrilled. But no matter what, the conversation of Who Es Muy Macho is a James-Bryant affair, with Dwayne Wade fans more or less keeping quiet after the Heat's first round loss to the Hawks.

But no one, outside of maybe upstate New York and the state of Colorado, really thought that the Lakers didn't have the best player on the floor in this series. And... just maybe... they don't.

At least, they didn't in the first two games of the series.

In the third, Carmelo Anthony continued to press the issue on both ends, guarding Bryant on defense in a way that he, frankly, has not seen fit to at any point in his professional career prior to this year. He was physical (much more than Kobe, mostly because he's a half-dozen years and untold numbers of NBA games younger), dogged, able to use his star status to not get called for the kind of ticky-tack fouls that a lesser player would. And when paired with the similar determination of Chauncey Billups (30 free throw attempts between the two of them tonight), you've got something.

The teams played an even-money third quarter that got them to crunch time despite Trevor Ariza's best offense of the playoffs, punctuated by one of those athletic dunk drives that make scouts drool... and then followed up by a scary fall on another drive. Yikes. The play lost flow late with nothing but free throws in the last two minutes, but the game was tight enough that this didn't matter overly much to The Drama, and at the end of the third, it was Lakers 81, Nuggets 80.

The fourth opened with another Linus Kleiza three off of a Melo dish,. Kleiza's fourth make from distance of the night, but his last very good moment of the game. Not to overstate Kleiza's importance in this game, but his 16 and 8 were 80% of their bench points and 50% of their bench boards, and gave the Nuggets a hailing distance performance to the Lakers bench on the road (22 to 21 for the home team in points). More importantly, it let the Nugs overcome 35 minutes of meh from their shooting guards (5 points on 2 of 10 shooting from Dahntay "4 personals in the first six minutes" Jones and J.R. Smith), because with Kleiza in, they simply moved Melo to the 2 on defense against Bryant, and the 3 on offense with Kleiza floating to the perimeter.

Two more Melo makes pushed the lead to 7 with 9 minutes left, and with the Lake crowd getting officially nervous, Bryant nailed a three to bring them back. With 8:18 left, Luke Walton got a whistle on Melo that made him sit, but unfortunately for the Lake Show, it had more to do with George Karl trying to get his star some air, rather than actual foul trouble. In the next minute that Melo watched, Shannon Brown makes a three as part of Phil Jackson's continual craps roll at the point to bring it back to a 1-pint game., and after Kleiza fouls Odom, Melo returns in time to watch the Lakers take back the lead at the line. It wasn't quite as dubious as putting an ice-cold Anthony Carter in the game to inbounds the ball at the end of Game 1, but for people looking for Karl to blow the game for the Nuggets, that's the kind of small moment that you need to see.

After another Laker o-board, Billups fouls Brown, who makes one of two to make it a two-point game, but missed free throws are never a good sign in a close game. Gasol and Martin get double technicals as the refs threaten to over-officiate the end game. Melo gets to the line on a Walton foul and makes both; it's answered by Gasol getting the whistle on Melo and making both. Martin with a make off a Smith dish ties it back up at 95 with 4:45 left, and we'll go to crunch time all square.

A Nene foul puts Gasol back on the line, but he misses both, and the next trip down, the Brazilian gets to the line on an Odom whistle and gives the visitors the end with two makes. Historically, Nene's not good at the line, but historically, he's also incredibly injury-prone and a terrible contract burden for the Nugs; in other words, screw history. Ariza with a steal and gets to the line, but misses one, and if you're counting at this point, that's five fourth-quarter free throw misses for the home team, against the road team's zero. The teams trade missed opportunities for 80 seconds before Melo gets the make to push it to three points, but Bryant's huge three ties it back up at 99 with two minutes left. Give the devil his due; Bryant just has a sense of the dramatic, and that makes lets them treat the last two minutes as a normal situation, rather than a panic one.

Billups leverages his big game reputation with a foul on Gasol, and his makes give the road team the lead again. Unlike in Game One, Derek Fisher's must-have make stays out with 80 seconds left, and Nene's board runs clock. The possession ends with a Smith turn / Ariza steal, and the fact that the possession didn't end with Billups or Anthony taking the shot is, once again, one of those Furious George crunch-time coaching head scratchers. Bryant's inevitable make ties it back at with 45 seconds left, but the Nugs get a huge play from their bigs, as Nene feeds Martin at the rim for a go-ahead layup. Nice ball movement there for the road team, and I can't help but wonder if all of those free throw misses is going to wind up biting them in the ass.

The Laker time out leads to a questionable possession and a jump ball; Ariza controls the tap but gives back the Game One hero status with a turnover to Nene, and Laker Fan is bent over not getting the call on a procedural violation, because we all know everything about procedural violations on jump balls. Fisher gives up the foul to Billups on a long and dangerous outlet pass, because he has to; the Nuggets point guard makes both, because that is what he generally does in his career. 105-101 with 13 seconds left. The Lakers go down low rather than shoot the desperate three, and Gasol gets the foul from Martin; he has to make both, and does. 105-103 with seven seconds left. The Nugs are able to inbound this time, and Billups finally misses a free throw to keep it a one possession game; aii. The final shot of the game is a Fisher miss on good defensive pressure that could have forced overtime, and that's that. Wow.

Laker Fan is going to moan about the refs after this one, but they shoot jumpers and threes while the Nuggets drive and take contact; they should get more ref love, even for having Thug Martin on the roster. The last time the Nuggets have won a playoff game against the Lakers, it was 1985, so I don't mean to overstate this. Anthony has now scored over 30 (tonight: 34, albeit on 12 of 29 shooting) in five straight games; if and when he has a bad game, Denver will lose, and I'm still feeling very good about my Lakers in seven pick.

But the simple fact of the matter is that for 96 minutes on the floor in LA, the Nugs have been the better team for well over half, and that's with most of their bench players doing the usual playoff fold job. The Lakers are going to need more from people like Andrew Bynum (9 and 2 in 18 meh minutes), and especially from their point guards (a combined 5 for 18 tonight), to get this going back in their direction.