Oops.
Instead, the Nuggets forced the first Game 7 of these NBA Playoffs with a dominating 113-96 victory that really wasn’t that close. In my defense I’d like to say that Bryant had a major stomach bug and was vomiting all day, but he still managed to score a team-high 31 points and shoot 57 percent from the field. The problem was that his teammates managed to hit only 37 percent of their shots.
Saturday is the first winner-take-all game for the Nuggets since losing to Utah in Game 7 of the 1994 Western Conference Semifinals. Denver can become just the ninth team in NBA playoff history to rally from a 3-1 series deficit. The last was the 2006 Phoenix Suns, who just so happened to do so against the Lakers.
Nuggets at Lakers Betting Story Lines
Ty Lawson was the story for Denver on Thursday after he scored a career playoff high 32 points on 13-of-18 shooting. Lawson connected on all four of his three-pointers in the first quarter—Lawson had made just two three-pointers in the first five games but was 5-for-6 from long distance on Thursday—as the Nuggets jumped to a 23-8 lead and never trailed. Lawson said that he flew out his personal shooting coach from Las Vegas to Denver on Wednesday night and whatever they did obviously worked.
I did think the Nuggets had a good chance in Game 6 if JaVale McGee had another big game—both of Denver’s previous two wins came when he exploded—but he had just two points to go with five fouls in 20 minutes.
The real story was the disappearance o...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Los Angeles Lakers
