DENVER – Kobe Bryant, Derek Fisher and Luke Walton – the only players who were around the last time the Lakers won a playoff series in 2004 – stood up and collectively pushed the Denver Nuggets to the brink of elimination Saturday. Those three Lakers were outstanding in the second half, when the Lakers showed greater will than a Denver team whose desperation only made it more scattered.
George Karl’s simplistic isolation offense only got worse with the Lakers having a better grasp of where Nuggets stars Carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson wanted most to go on the court. That’s what usually happens by Game 3 in a series when the teams really start to know each other.
Even back on its home Pepsi Center floor, Denver shot just 37.2 percent from the field. Anthony was 5 for 22 from the field (16 points). The Lakers took a 3-0 series lead, the situation from which no NBA team has ever rallied to win.
QUOTABLE (FAN)
With 1:07 left in the first half, this was heard courtside from a fan: “Come on, Nuggets – give us something to cheer about!” The Lakers led, 50-42, at the time, and Anthony and Iverson were almost finished with a combined 5-for-21 shooting first half.
KEY MOMENT
Bryant took the Lakers’ first five field-goal attempts of the second half and made four – increasing the Lakers’ halftime lead of 53-46 to 64-51.
QUOTABLE (PLAYER)
With a 19-point lead entering the fourth quarter, Bryant said to his teammates on the bench: “Go for the throat.”
NEXT
Lakers at Denver, 7:30 p.m. Monday, KCAL/9, TNT, KLAC/570.
