Lakers @ Denver : Game 3

[corona]

Key Matchup:
vs.
Other than Diawara, Kmart's probably our best hope at defending Kobe. He needs to do a better job in this game and make contesting Kobe's jumpshot a higher priority.

Series:


Game 2: Wednesday April 23rd
122-107 Lakers victory
Kobe poured in 49 points on just 27 shots, along with 12 assists.
Luke Walton scored a career playoff high 18 points
Nene made a return but recorded just 2 points and 1 rebound in 7 minutes against DJ Mbenga
Jr Smith scored 20 off the bench, but there were just 6 other bench points combined.
Kleiza made his first playoff start and chipped in 10/8

Game 1: Sunday April 20th
128-114 Lakers victory
Iverson & Anthony combined to shoot 44% from the field and go 15/23 from the free throw line.
Jr Smith & Kleiza poured in 38 off the bench
Camby pulled down just 7 rebounds and was 2/9 from the field with 4 turnovers.
Gasol was 2 assists away from a triple double and scored a career playoff high 36 points.
Kobe was held to 9/26 from the field, but got to the line 14 times.

Denver : 50-32 : Trail series 0-2
Rank 11th in offense and 9th in defense
Iverson continues to play through a fracture in his right ring finger.

Keys to winning:
Sitting Anthony Carter on the bench (permanently)
Being more physical on the inside, deflecting passes, making better interior rotations, forcing passes back outside.
Getting continued bench production out of Smith/Kleiza
Playing consistently well in all 4 quarters

LA Lakers: 57-25 : Lead series 2-0
Rank 3rd in offense and 6th in defense.
Bynum's out while recovering from a knee injury.
Ariza is out and recovering from a broken foot.
Kobe Bryant is playing with a torn ligament in his pinky finger.
Derek Fisher is playing with a partially torn tendon in his foot but hasn't seemed affected.

Photos:








Game Chat:
http://nuggets.proboards1.com/index.cgi?action=chat
please no trolling.

Game Notes:
http://www.nba.com/nuggets/news/notes.pdf
http://www.nba.com/lakers/news/notes.pdf

Series Schedule:
Game 3: @ Denver - Saturday April 26th, 3:30pm mountain - TNT
Game 4: @ Denver - Monday April 28th, 8:30pm mountain - TNT
Game 5: @ Lakers* - Wednesday April 30th - tbd
Game 6: @ Denver* - Friday May 2nd - tbd
Game 7: @ Lakers* - Sunday May 4th - tbd

[Kevlo_911]

Hopefully this starts a 3-0 at home

[corona]

statistically we're a significantly better home team that road team.
particularly defensively. it's been horrendous on the road all season (19th in the league), and great at home. don't know why....but that's the case.

33-8 at home is no joke either. better than the lakers record at staples. albeit they gave us one of those 8 losses.

[Kevlo_911]

Yeah hopefully the crowd is nice and loud on defense to hopefully throw them off their game a little bit.

[The Answer_CO]

Everybody knows if we lose this game, the season is over.
But, Nuggets did step up in "must win" games this season so hopefully they will step up in this one too.

[Tommy Trojan]

GL to both teams!!!

[pickaxe]

Yeah hopefully the crowd is nice and loud on defense to hopefully throw them off their game a little bit.

You better bele 'dat! MAKE SOME NOISE

I will be there. I'm gonna say "D" one million times. Let's see what happens.

[Shady08]

We need to get this game. Step yo game up Denver! GO NUGGETS!

[el loco]

We need to get this game. Step yo game up Denver! GO NUGGETS!

[Ballin02]

It would help if the team had more then just 12 asst as well (Iverson had 6 of them). Like the game plan says, they need more ball movement from everyone. Quit rushing things and move the ball around to try to get the best shot possible. When I think about how much more dangerous this team could be if they just had proper ball movement ( and at least decent defense) I .

One thing Phil Jackson has the Lakers doing is they are being patient and moving the ball, they seem to have gained some great chemistry, they seem to always know where eachother is at on the floor. Maybe thats because he has his players disciplined and they are almost always in their proper positions...unlike someone like Camby, who is a center, yet manages to be at the top of the key during the start of offensive sets or dribbling the ball up the court like he's the PG of the team.

[Don_eMOCION#31]

my prediction for the next two games are wins by the nuggets. i believe we'll win all of our home games because we seem to play much better at home.

go nuggets!

[AI4life07]

I hope karl made the Nuggets watch the games where the teams that were down 2-0 came back to win at their home. And i know it's a lost cause but this would have been the perfect opportunity to start JR. We need to get off to a good early start and run and gun JR would have helped make that happen. Kleiza is still injured with that sore bruised elbow and he played poorly on Wednesday where as JR played great offensively that is. If we are leading by 15 or more after the first quarter i say we win. And our defense has to do a better job on Kobe double team him and then rotate back to the open man. Let's go NUGS!

[Spriteftw-*]

fire up nuggets!!!

[Heir]

As a Laker fan these games never get old. Kobe makes us appreciate his greatness, even if fans and media alike around the league may just stamp this game as

[corona]

http://www.pickaxeandroll.com/

The Nuggets had 27 half court sets where they made zero passes. Surprisingly these were there most successful possessions as they scored 34 points out of those sets resulting in an offensive efficiency rating of 125.9. The primary players behind that production were AI and J.R., but it was mostly AI. He was very good at attacking the Lakers quickly and getting the shot he wanted. I imagine that typically they do not score that many points with no passes very frequently, but because AI was hot from 14-18 feet it worked pretty well.

There were 47 sets where the Nuggets made one pass and in those 47 sets they only scored 31 points which equates to an offensive efficiency of 66.0. These possessions were primarily entry passes and either shots or drives. It is not good when the option you try the most is the option that performs the worst. When something does not work, stop trying to make it work. If that is confusing, go talk to James Dolan. He knows all about it.

Moving on, the Nuggets had 22 sets where they made two passes resulting in 17 points. That is an offensive efficiency of 77.3. They are better after two passes than after one, but not much better.

If you are truly paying attention you will know that next is sets with three passes. The Nuggets only had seven possessions where they made three passes. Five points were scored in those seven possessions and that is good for an offensive efficiency of 71.4.

There were three Nuggets sets where they made four passes. Somehow they managed to not score in any of those three possessions and I imagine you can calculate what the offensive efficiency rating for those possessions is.

[corona]

kleiza's possibly out for game 3 with that hyperextended elbow.

please use khouba or jones. i don't care if they both foul out attempting to guard kobe, and they only score 2 points combined....just no more carter.

[RRFB]

According to the Rocky Mountain News this morning, they'll be handing out white t-shirts to all fans at the game. Apparently Melo really pushed for it and the players agreed to pay for them.

[corona]

rocky mountain news:

* Notes: Karl expects guard Anthony Carter, who was benched in favor of Kleiza and logged just 9 minutes in Game 2, to have a key role. This despite Jackson saying the Nuggets "liked what happened without Carter on the floor."

[el loco]

kleiza's possibly out for game 3 with that hyperextended elbow.

please use khouba or jones. i don't care if they both foul out attempting to guard kobe, and they only score 2 points combined....just no more carter.

Did you see that today? Because yesterday on the wiretap was a link to an article saying he was going to be the game 3 starter. I don't care if he starts or not, but that is 12 points and 6 boards we won't be getting if he doesn't even play.

[corona]

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2 ... f-a-pain/'

Nuggets coach George Karl said there's a chance Kleiza, who took a nasty fall in Wednesday's Game 2 against the Lakers and suffered a hyperextended right elbow, might not be able to play in today's 3:30 p.m. game at the Pepsi Center.