Lakers Bury Nuggets With 3's and Dunks, 123-104

The current big 6 powerhouses of the Western Conference seldom lose at home. The Mavericks, Spurs, Rockets, Lakers, Suns, and Jazz are a combined 80-21 at home. The Lakers are 15-4 at home, and like the other powerhouse teams of the Conference, they don't lose at home unless at least a couple of starters are having bad nights.

Meanwhile, the Nuggets have blown several 4th quarter leads at home, mostly to losing teams, and are just 9-7 at home. The Nuggets, before the suspensions, lost at home to teams that the big 6 wouldn't be caught dead losing to at home, such as the Grizzlies, the Hawks, and the Knicks. When Melo and J.R. return, the Nuggets must become dominant at home in order to show they are competitive with the top teams in the Conference. They can hardly afford any more losses to losing teams at home.

Fortunately for the Nuggets, in the playoffs, the home court advantage is somewhat less than it is in the regular season, giving them a chance to advance in the playoffs despite their opponents having the home court advantage.

Tonight the Lakers used a lethal combination of long-range three-pointers and close-in dunks and layups to dominate and rout the Nuggets, who seem to sink deeper into confusion and inconsistency as the marathon suspensions continue on. The Lakers stormed the hoop at will, especially in the first half, and when the Nuggets tried to defend in the paint, they just sunk a large number of lightly defended threes. They made 13/28 threes, but they missed several during the huge garbage time, so it was really more amazing than that ratio makes it look. Had Boykins not been 4/6 from downtown, with the Nuggets overall being a very decent 7/16, the score would have been more ugly than it was.

The Lakers ran an offensive clinic against the "pick-up team" Nuggets, and had a staggering 39 assists, versus just 24 for the Nuggets. Kobe Bryant had 10 assists (but only 8 points on 2/9 shooting) and Luke Walton (SF) had 9 assists. The Laker offense was so tightly and efficiently run, that the number two blocker in the League, (behind only Jermaine O'Neill), Marcus Camby, failed to get a single block. By contrast, the Laker's 7' center, Andrew Bynum, the second team, second year Center, had 6 blocks alone, and he had 19 points on 8/9 shooting.

It was the kind of aggressive and well-coached game that the Lakers seem to play at home without fail, season in and season out. The Nuggets almost certainly would have lost this one even if J.R. and Melo had started, unless there is some miracle Melo-A.I. combination effect which confuses defenses and produces a whole heap of easy scoring. (Of course, whether this spark happens is exactly what many basketball fans are waiting eagerly to find out.)

In a sure sign of how disoriented the Nuggets are from the constant lineup changes, the 24 assists the Nuggets had were distributed throughout almost the whole lineup. The assist leader (6 assists) was guard Julius Hodge, who played all of 1 minute the whole season until tonight, when he played 19 minutes. Neither Iverson nor Boykins could lead the strange lineups which came and went.

For the third game in a row since his return from a 4th metacarpal fracture on his right hand, which is probably still bothering him, Marcus Camby failed to reestablish his scoring touch. He finished 5/16, and 4/4 from the line, for 14 points, but he had 12 rebounds and 4 assists.

It's sad to say, but Najera was even less of a factor than usual. In 19 minutes, he was 1/6, and 0/1 on 3's for 2 points, and he failed to get any rebounds or assists. Reggie Evans, who has been to hell and back trying to find his shots, decided not to take any tonight, but he was an expert rebounder as usual, getting 13 boards in 19 minutes. Another forward, Linus Kleiza, played 23 minutes and was 4/7, and 2/2 from the line for 10 points, and he had 9 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2 steals.

Nene, questionable knee and all, played 16 minutes, and was 7/12 for 14 points, and he had 6 rebounds, 2 steals, and 2 blocks. Because the forwards other than Nene can not score enough, Nuggets fans have to hope that Nene's knee allows him to play at least much of the rest of the season.

Diawara (GF) played 31 minutes, and was 4/13, but 3/7 on 3's, and 2/4 from the stripe for 13 points, and he had 2 rebounds, 2 assists, and 3 steals.

Julius Hodge (G) was called up from the NBA Development League to play some PG tonight. He played 1 minute against Philadelphia in early November, marking his first appearance in an NBA game since being shot four times in the legs and hip while driving on Interstate 76 on April 8. Tonight, Hodge played 19 minutes, but he was only 1/3, and 2/2 from the line, for 4 points, and he had 6 assists and 2 steals.

There were too many Nuggets trying to make up for too much bench time for A.I. to be able to "take over the game" tonight. Iverson must be thinking to himself about now "at least with the Sixers, I lost games without all these confusing lineup changes and complications". Then he will remember that even David Stern's suspensions eventually will end, and Melo and J.R. will eventually return. Any thought that Iverson had of taking 25-35 shots ended when his new friend Earl Boykins went on a scoring rampage in the 2nd quarter. A.I. finished a disappointing 5/17, 0/1 on 3's, and 6/8 from the line for 16 points. He had 5 assists and 1 steal. His turnovers were limited to 3; the Nuggets as a whole had 14 turnovers, which was good under the circumstances.

The Nuggets would have been badly routed were it not for one Earl Boykins, the shortest player in the NBA, at 5'5", who lit up the scoreboard against the mighty Lakers in L.A.. At this point, Boykins has probably proved that the only reason he is not a starter is that he is 5'5" tall, because he has played as a real starter during the entire suspension period. I hope his play talks the Nuggets out of trading him, though I realize the team badly needs help at PF. Boykins was the highest scoring player on the court, with 24, beating Laker Smush Parker by a point because, though both of them were 9/14 from the field and 2/2 from the line, Boykins was 4/6 from downtown and Parker was 3/4 from there. Boykins also had 3 assists, a steal, and played the best error-free defense you can play when you are 5'5".

This was the eighth suspension game for what was the League's top scoring tandem, and there are still 2 more games left in the double suspension and a staggering 7 games left in the Melo suspension. George Karl, despite being in over his head during the suspensions, will earn the "Bravery in the Face of David Stern's Temper Tantrum Medal" if he can get the Nuggets into the playoffs after all this turmoil. The Nuggets may fall out of the top 8 in the West before Melo gets back.

The Nuggets next game is tomorrow, Saturday Jan. 6 in Denver against the division leading Utah Jazz, at 7 pm mountain time. Nuggets fans are as upset about the Jazz position at the top of the Northwest Division as they are about anything else, save the suspensions, so they are really going to be on the lookout for some combination of Nene's knee, Camby's shot, Iverson's heart, and Boykin's soul to give them an upset win against the Jazz, who will also be playing without rest.