Lakers Push Back, Send Message in Win Over Nuggets

LOS ANGELES -- There are 15 championship banners hanging in the Staples Center, and plenty have been won with the Lakers being known as a finesse team.

But finesse doesn't work against the Denver Nuggets. You don't say "pardon me" if you're grappling with Kenyon Martin for a rebound or "desculpe," which is Portuguese for "excuse me," if Nene gets in the way in the paint.

The Lakers finally figured that out Sunday after getting sand kicked in their faces for 2 1/2 games by the Nuggets. There was a 105-79 road rout at the hands of the Nuggets Nov. 13 and a 126-113 home setback to them Feb. 5, a game in which Denver didn't even have high-scoring forward Carmelo Anthony. Then the Nuggets pushed around the Lakers in the first half Sunday, taking a 52-43 lead.

Enough finally was enough. Lamar Odom stopped being a nice fellow. So did Pau Gasol.

"We need to really be the aggressor," Gasol said after the Lakers outscored the Nuggets 52-37 in the second half to win 95-89 in the battle between the West's top two outfits. "We need to challenge instead of we're always being challenged ... We're not aggressive enough. We've got to start challenging people and imposing our will. And we can. It sucks sometimes that we don't do it."

At least the Nuggets (39-20) have been around the past two seasons to knock some sense into the Lakers (45-15). They literally do it courtesy of elbows by Martin and Nene and with Anthony throwing around his big body.

In last spring's playoffs, the Lakers sometimes looked disinterested until the Nuggets woke them up. With the Western Conference finals tied 2-2 and the Lakers having been lucky to win their two games thanks to late-game faulty Denver inbound passes, Los Angeles rose up to win the last two games of the series and then defeated Orlando 4-1 for another NBA crown.

"[Sunday's win] was important because they beat us [twice this season], and we feel like we're going to see them again [in the playoffs]," Odom said. "It was important to put in their minds, if we play the right way, we can beat them."

Odom sure made his one-time Olympic coach, Larry Brown, proud by playing the right way. He scored 14 of his team-high 20 points in the second half. On a lousy shooting day by both teams, Odom went 8-of-13, making him the game's only player with more than six field-goal attempts to shoot 50 percent or better.

Odom, who grabbed 12 rebounds while frontcourt mate Gasol had 14, made up for a tough shooting outing by Lakers star guard Kobe Bryant, who was an anemic 3-of-17 for 14 points. But Bryant, checked by Arron Afflalo and a host of other defenders, did hand out 12 assists.

"My jumper was off," Bryant said. "So I've got to get back in and work on it so it's consistent again, after being off for a long time."

With Bryant recently sitting out 2 1/2 weeks due to a sprained ankle, Nuggets coach George Karl was quite content to let him shoot outside jumpers and to bang him when he drove to bucket. It was a day when the officials weren't blowing the whistle a lot.

The Lakers eventually figured that out. They raised their intensity after intermission to make up for a first half in which they committed 14 of their 18 turnovers.

"They were much more aggressive in the second half than the first half," Anthony said. "They made the adjustments to what we were doing."

With Bryant saying there "was a playoff type of intensity," the Lakers held the Nuggets to 31.6 percent shooting and forced them into 12 of their 20 turnovers in the second half. Anthony, whose game-high 21 points came on 7-of-19 shooting, was harassed further by Lakers forward Ron Artest and had five of his eight turnovers and five of his six fouls after intermission.

Two were called on the offensive end in the game's final 4:41, and Anthony fouled out with 2:13 left. Karl dubbed those two calls "crazy," but Anthony didn't seem too torn up about them.

"I think this is what they were looking for," Anthony said of Artest's offseason acquisition. "Especially when they play against us. Be a little more physical with me."

Overall, the Nuggets didn't seem too perturbed by the loss. They do have one more regular-season meeting with the Lakers on April 8 at the Pepsi Center, where Denver has beaten them in the past two regular-season games by an average margin of 23.5 points.

Denver players fully expect to be back at the Staples Center in May for another West final against the Lakers. Anthony said the Nuggets "lace up our shoes just like they do."

"I feel like we're right there on the same level as that team," said Denver point guard Chauncey Billups, who had four of his five turnovers in the second half as the Nuggets were hurt by speedy backup point Ty Lawson being lost for the game in the second quarter due to a left shoulder contusion. "When we play against them, we match up really well against them."

The Nuggets sure do. And the Lakers actually might not mind.

If the Nuggets can wake up the sometimes slumbering Lakers the way they did last season, the guys in purple and gold might want to send thanks if it results in banner No. 16 being hoisted.

But they probably wouldn't do it with a note to Martin on flowery stationery.

Chris Tomasson can be reached at tomasson@fanhouse.com or on Twitter @christomasson