![\"59505312\"](\"http:\/\/my.lakers.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/96458157_10.jpg\" "\\"59505312\\"")
Throughout the first week of the 2008-09 Western Conference Finals, the Lakers found themselves amidst a heavyweight fight, going blow for blow with the Denver Nuggets.<\/p>\nThroughout the first week of the 2008-09 Western Conference Finals, the Lakers found themselves amidst a heavyweight fight, going blow for blow with the Denver Nuggets.<\/p>\n
L.A. took Game 1 by two points, dropped Game 2 by three points, snatched Game 3 on the road by six and then lost by 19 in Game 4. Not a lot of room for error, to be sure.<\/p>\n
Then in the third quarter of Game 5, Kobe Bryant fully figured out Denver’s aggressive, trapping defense to turn what had been a seven-point deficit into a nine-point victory. L.A. carried nearly the same formula into Game 6 at Denver, and clinched the series on the road in more-than-convincing fashion, 119-92.<\/p>\n
Friday’s matchup at STAPLES Center, however, took place in early February, not late May.<\/p>\n
Among the differences: while the Lakers were focused on winning, not a great deal was at stake; Kobe Bryant was playing on a bad ankle, while Carmelo Anthony opted not to play for the seventh straight game due to his own injured ankle; the teams had met only once this season, back on Nov. 13 when the Nuggets beat a Pau-Gasol-less Lakers team on a back-to-back. <\/p>\n
“It’s more difficult in the regular season because in the playoffs you’re only focusing on that one team,” said assistant coach Jim Cleamons. “We realize that Denver is our opponent tonight, but we’re going to see a different defense tomorrow night in Portland. There is a rhythm that players get accustomed to, and that’s more difficult in this case.”<\/p>\n
![\"59505331\"](\"http:\/\/my.lakers.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/96458138_10.jpg\" "\\"59505331\\"")
As such, it wasn’t surprising to see an up-and-down game in which the Lakers built big leads, then watched Denver shoot its way right back into the contest before the Nuggets nailed nine second half threes to ultimately make the game’s final run and earn a 126-113 road win.<\/p>\n
Chauncey Billups alone hit five of his nine total three-pointers in the third quarter that Phil Jackson said ultimately changed the course of the game for good, but there were so many hard-to-explain runs, we had to keep a detailed log of the swings in quarter-by-quarter fashion:<\/p>\n
First Quarter<\/font><\/u><\/b> 0:04.6<\/b> Chauncey Billups drew a foul from Kobe while attempting a three-pointer, making 2-of-3 free throws to cap an 11-0 answer amidst a 17-4 overall run as the Lakers nearly fell asleep after that terrific Bryant-inspired start.<\/p>\n 0:00.5<\/b> Remember the NCAA title-winning dunk for NC State in 1983, when Lorenzo Charles caught a halfcourt desperation attempt and stuffed it home? Well, the stakes weren’t quite as high tonight, but Gasol snatched Bryant’s miss out of the air and dropped it home to tie the game at 30 after one.<\/p>\n 3:01<\/b> Just as quickly as L.A. built its lead to open the quarter, they once again let Denver come back the other way until the Nuggets led 57-53, a 21-10 streak for the powder blues. <\/p>\n 0:05.4<\/b> That “game of runs” thing continued to close the half, as L.A. climbed back into the driver’s seat with an 11-2 burst capped by Gasol’s put-back slam of a Josh Powell layup attempt (Powell got six minutes of relief duty, scoring four points with a board). At the break, L.A.’s lead was 64-59.<\/p>\n Third Quarter<\/font><\/u><\/b> 2:29<\/b> You knew what was coming next … this time it was all Billups, who literally nailed three consecutive three-pointers, No.’s 6, 7 and 8 on the night in 10 attempts. That put Denver on a 12-2 run, got him to 34 points on the evening, while Kobe had 27 for the Lakers.<\/p>\n 0:02.4<\/B> The Nuggets run continued through the end of the quarter, when J.R. Smith capped Billups’ ninth three (seriously) with two free throws to give the Nuggets a five-point lead heading into the fourth quarter. <\/p>\n 3:48<\/b> Bryant’s and-1 layup followed Gasol’s put-back dunk for a quick 5-0 Lakers spurt that cut Denver’s lead to eight as L.A. tried to make a final push…<\/p>\n 0:29.9<\/b> … But instead, the Nuggets ran off the final run of the game in ridiculous form, making three more three-pointers to finish an absolutely absurd 15-of-22 from distance (68%) and ultimately run away with a 126-113 win.<\/p>\n POSTGAME NUMBERS<\/font><\/u><\/b> 9<\/b> Career high three-pointers nailed by Chauncey Billups, including five in the third quarter alone, for 27 of his game-high 39 points.<\/p>\n 17<\/b> Rebounds for Pau Gasol, plus 17 points. <\/p>\n 27<\/b> Points for J.R. Smith off the bench, including 19 in the second half. Shannon Brown led the Lakers with 13 off the pine.<\/p>\n 33<\/b> Points for Kobe Bryant on 11-of-22 shooting, plus nine rebounds despite his injured ankle.<\/p>\n 68<\/b> Denver’s unheard of shooting percentage from three-point land, including Billups’ 9-of-13 and J.R. Smith’s 3-of-4.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Throughout the first week of the 2008-09 Western Conference Finals, the Lakers found themselves amidst a heavyweight fight, going blow for blow with the Denver Nuggets. L.A. took Game 1 by two points, dropped Game 2 by three points, snatched Game 3 on the road by six and then lost by 19 in Game 4. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4162,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-287830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4162"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287830\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n5:09<\/b> Remember how Kobe hurt his ankle last game and some though him “questionable” for the game? He responded by sinking his second straight three, from the same spot after pulling up in transition, to climb to 5-of-6 from the field for 13 of L.A.’s 24 points to create an 11-point lead as L.A. threw the first punch. In related news, Bryant is not a normal person.<\/p>\n![\"59505314\"](\"http:\/\/my.lakers.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/96458118_10.jpg\" "\\"59505314\\"")
Second Quarter<\/font><\/u><\/b>
\n9:00<\/b> “Mind over matter for Kobe Bryant” was the 710 ESPN radio call by play-by-play man Spero Dedes after No. 24 dropped his fourth three-pointer of the first half to climb to 20 points on 7-of-10 shooting, putting L.A. up 43-36 thanks to a 13-6 run to start the second. Moments later, Bynum left the game in favor of Gasol, after not moving as fast as he has in previous games. Though he managed to score eight points on perfect 4-of-4 shooting with four rebounds, he just wasn’t getting up and down the floor extremely well. Perhaps not coincidentally, Bynum was wearing a left knee sleeve, which hasn’t been the case of late.<\/p>\n
\n4:37<\/b> Ready for your next lead swing? The latest to that point came as Bryant got consecutive tough hoops to fall, complaining that he was fouled on each, the latter of which was a spinning, fall-away bank off glass from the elbow that put L.A. up seven.<\/p>\n![\"59505277\"](\"http:\/\/my.lakers.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/96458010_10.jpg\" "\\"59505277\\"")
Fourth Quarter<\/font><\/u><\/b>
\n9:25<\/b> Another run? Really? Ty Lawson and J.R. Smith scored four points apiece off Denver’s bench to cap an 8-0 run that gave the Nuggets their biggest lead of the game at 102-91.<\/p>\n
\n3.5<\/b> Games between the Lakers (38-13) and Nuggets (34-16) in the standings.<\/p>\n