Denver Nuggets 120, Los Angeles Lakers 101
The Nuggets normally use a barrage of points and timely defense to blowout their opponent in the second or third quarter and hold their big lead for the remainder of the game. This game wasn't that type of win for the Nuggets. Denver didn't destroy the Lakers over a twelve-minute stretch in the first three quarters, yet they still held an eleven point lead heading into the fourth. This game was their "Stairway to Heaven." Their lead was slowly building throughout the game. They showed their greatness throughout putting together a near-perfect performance across the board. Smith played the role of John Bonham with his back-to-back threes like crashing cymbals to close out the final crescendo.
The Lakers' supporting cast played about as poorly as a group of eight guys can play. Kobe Bryant (almost went a whole Lakers recap without mentioning him) put together a pretty good game, but he was almost forced to shoot too much with how bad Lamar Odom, Trevor Ariza, Derek Fisher and the Lakers' bench played. Bryant having double-digit three-point attempts could mean he is on fire from deep, the defense isn't allowing him to get to the lane, or he feels the need to take ill-advised shots to make up for the rest of his team. This was a combination of the last two. Odom, Ariza and Fisher combined for 13 points on 4 of 19 shooting which only puts more pressure on the rest of the team (read: Kobe) to cover their lack of production. The Lakers can't win with three of their top six basically taking the night off.
The Nuggets have turned this into a best of three, but they'll need to win game five to have a realistic shot at winning the series. They have the momentum after an absolutely dominating performance tonight. The Lakers don't react too kindly when they get beat as badly as they did in game four. They followed up double-digit losses to the Rockets in the previous round with blowout wins in each of the next games. Los Angeles will need a better showing from their role players and will need to stop the Nuggets from repeatedly getting into the key.
Prediction: Lakers win convincingly.
source: TALKHOOPS.NET
No comments:
Post a Comment