Game 2 Recap
"Better learn not to talk to me you shake the tree, a leopard's going to fall out," said Kobe Bryant of the words J.R. Smith had for him right before Bryant scored his 47th, 48th and 49th points on the Nuggets sixth man in the Lakers 122-107 game two victory.

In a game where Ronny Turiaf was sidelined with tonsillitis symptoms and Lamar Odom never got into a groove with foul trouble, you would have thought this would be a perfect opportunity for the Nuggets to steal a game in Los Angeles and get the split every bottom seed sets out to get. After allowing Bryant to explode for twenty points in the first quarter, they had to have felt like they weathered the storm after the Nuggets found themselves only down three points. However, that wasn’t the case. After allowing an abysmal 114 points in game one, the Lakers decided to play defense for one quarter, giving up only 17 points in the second quarter.

For game two, George Karl decided to go with a bigger line up by replacing Anthony Carter in the starting lineup with Linas Kleiza. This was seemingly a great move knowing Turiaf was out, and seemed even better when Odom got into foul trouble, but the move came back to bit Karl in the rear end when he saw the speed of the game slowed to a half court game and their fast break points reduced from 22 in game one to six in game two.

The Nuggets went into the fourth quarter down by ten and were able to bring the score to five with 6:48 left to play. Bryant had spent the beginning of the third facilitating, assisting three of the Lakers four free throws before taking over the game for the second straight fourth quarter. With 6:41 left to play in the fourth, Kobe scored his first two points of the quarter extending the Lakers lead to seven. With 2:21 left to play in the game, Bryant hit a free throw which would be his 19 th point of the quarter, making the Lakers lead 120-101.

Game three will be in Denver. If the Nuggets are going to win, they can’t allow Kobe to continue his fourth quarter onslaughts and they’ll have to guard Luke Walton, who happens to be averaging 17.5 points, five rebounds and five assists in the two games this series.

Other notes:
Derek Fisher, J.R. Smith and Allen Iverson all received technical fouls in game two. The over/under for the amount of techs being called by the end of this series (assuming it goes five games like I predicted) is 37.

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Game 1 Recap
The story of this game wasn't the 40,00 points scored, the Lakers win or Pau Gasol's brilliant performance in his first ever playoff victory. The story of this game was Kobe Bryant's performance throughout the game. Not that he played particularly well, but that he spent the whole game getting into the head of the Nuggets players and coaching staff.

Bryant spent the game shooting terribly (especially in the first half where he went into the locker room with only four points on two for 10 from the field), but he had words for any Nugget guarding him after a made shot. He told defenders that he couldn't be stopped, he told defenders that they couldn't guard him, he shook his head after every made shot and he continued to jar his jaw even though Kenyon Martin played Bryant as well as anyone has all year... through three quarters. After a few made shots (which really started after Anthony Johnson pissed him off with that little shove in the back at the end of a Kobe break away) mid-way through the third (all of which were contested and played as well as they could have been), the Nuggets defenders started to believe they couldn't guard him, which allowed Bryant to explode for 18 fourth quarter points (all of which came during a six and a half minute span) in Kobe-like fashion.

However, in a game where four of the leagues stars scored at least 30 points, Pau Gasol shined the brightest scoring 36 points, grabbing 16 rebounds and dishing out eight assists. Not only were his numbers outstanding, but he didn't really have to work hard to get them compared to everything he had to earn in all 12 of his previous playoff games.

After the Nuggets went into the half with a little confidence, only being down by two to the team who swept them in the season series, they came out flat in the third quarter and were outscored 39-22 in the period with Gasol scoring 16 of the 39. The Lakers bench came in mid-way through the quarter and played very well. There was excellent ball movement and they played hard defense. Linas Kleiza and J.R. Smith came off the bench and played very well for the Nuggets. They combined for 38 points and seven rebounds.

Denver went on an 11-2 run in the fourth quarter and were able to close the gap to nine twice, but were never able to overcome the Lakers huge lead largely because of Bryant's 18 point quarter.
Other Notes:
There were five technical fouls handed out in this game. Kobe Bryant, Anthony Carter, and Kenyon Martin were all given one. Allen Iverson was ejected from the game after receiving two for complaining about a non-call after a jump shot on the baseline. Also, every time Carmello Anthony went to the foul line the Lakers fans chanted “DUI.”

Series Preview
This has the potential to be one of the most exciting series of the first round. Not exciting in the sense that Denver has the potential to beat Los Angeles (which seems highly unlikely), but that every game played in this series could have over 230 points scored between the two teams. The Nuggets feature the third and fourth highest scorers in the league this season in Allen Iverson and Carmello Anthony and the Lakers have the leagues second highest scorer in Kobe Bryant. The Nuggets have a lot of great individual talent but rarely play well as a team. Before this season, the Lakers were just the individual talent and a group of four other guys on the court. However, for the first time since 2004, a Lakers playoff series will actually be about the Lakers versus their opponent, the Nuggets, instead of Kobe Bryant against (insert team here).

For the Nuggets to win this series they’re going to have to look up defense and try to figure out how to do that. The Nuggets had the league’s second worst defense, giving up 107 points per contest. Carmello is going to have to play beyond what he’s done in the regular season and Iverson is going to have to do what Iverson does without dominating the majority of their offensive possessions. The Lakers will win this series if they don’t get into a running game with Denver and they can get stops, because Denver won’t be able to. Denver will win any game where the Lakers are forced to match shots because the Nuggets have way too many ways to score.
Prediction: I think the Nuggets can steal a game or two from the Lakers, who don’t play the best defense in the world either. Lakers in 6.

Point Guard - Derek Fisher vs. Anthony Carter
	Derek Fisher only averages more than 19.3 points per game than one other team in the league this season, and they didn’t make it to the playoffs. If Carter lets Fisher get going early, it’s going to be very tough for the Nuggets to beat the Lakers.		Anthony Carter has been ineffective to say the least against the Lakers this season. He’s only averaging three points per game, but has averaged 7 assists per game. The biggest flaw has been his inability to stop anyone. If Derek Fisher gets going, it only makes things worse for the rest of the defense.
Advantage - Derek Fisher
Shooting Guard - Kobe Bryant vs. Allen Iverson
	I don’t really see myself giving anyone an advantage over Kobe Bryant either. He is the best offensive player in the league right now and has averaged 22 and 7.7 against the Nuggets this year in 10 fewer minutes than Iverson has played. Let it be known that Iverson can’t guard Kobe either, and probably won’t.		It’s hard to imagine saying an opposing player has an advantage over Allen Iverson because he has one of the most brilliant one-on-one games in NBA history. He’s lit the Lakers up for 32 and seven in the three game series. I don’t think Kobe can stop Iverson, he probably can’t even contain him.
Advantage - We'll See After the Series
Small Forward - Lamar Odom vs. Carmelo Anthony
	Since the emergence of Pau Gasol to the Lakers line-up Lamar Odom has been playing the best basketball of his career. Odom has been just as important, and maybe even more important than Gasol to the Lakers successes this season.		The Melo-Odom match up is one of the most intriguing ones in this series because they both mean so much to their teams. Anthony is going to have trouble with Odom’s length but has the quickness to get around him. He’s played alright against the Lakers this year, but he’s going to have to rebound better and keep Odom from filling up the stat sheet.
Advantage - Very, very slight advantage to Lamar Odom
Power Forward - Vladimir Radmanovic vs. Kenyon Martin
	Since Vladimir Radmanovic has returned from his injury, he has shot about 41 percent from behind the arch and averaged a little over nine and a half points per game. He averaged 13.5 ppg and shot 46 percent behind the arch against the Nuggets this season.		Kenyon Martin is a lot stronger and way to physical for Vlad Radmanovic to deal with. He’ll beast VR on the boards, but that’s about it. He really doesn’t contribute much outside of  a dunk every once in a while.
Advantage - Vladimir Radmanovic
Center - Pau Gasol vs. Marcus Camby
	Pau Gasol has not seen Denver this year. The last time the Lakers played Denver was in mid-January, weeks before the Gasol trade. This will be another classic sports match up of a great offense vs. a great defense.		Marcus Camby is one year removed from being the leagues top defender. He’s had another solid year shooting that funky jump shot and blocking others. He’ll have to put in a lot of work if he wants to stop Pau Gasol.
Advantage - Slight Advantage to Pau Gasol
Lakers' Bench vs. Nuggets' Bench
	Outside of the Pistons’ bench (and maybe the Celtics’ bench) no other group of reserves has played as well as the Lakers’ reserves. Jordan Farmar, Sasha Vujacic, Luke Walton and Ronny Turiaf all have had solid seasons. Phil Jackson is very comfortable having any of those guys on the floor during any time of the game.		J.R. Smith has continually come off the bench and lit opposing teams up. He has great range and can torch the Lakers because they have trouble closing out shooters. Linas Kleiza, Eduardo Najera and Nene will all come off the bench and make solid contributions too.
Advantage - Lakers Bench
Coaching - Phil Jackson vs. George Karl
	This really isn’t even a competition. Those nine titles speak for themselves, including one over Karl in 1996. Phil Jackson has one of his deepest teams ever (which is saying a lot considering the team’s he’s coached) and shouldn’t fall in this series.		George Karl has had an amazing career. He’s coached in a few conference finals series and coached one of six teams who fell to the Bulls in the 90s. He doesn’t have the kind of roster he’d like to have with this Nuggets team, but he can still win games. He just won’t be winning this series.
Advantage - Phil Jackson