LA Lakers v. Denver Nuggets Preview

In a nutshell I think this LA Lakers v. Denver Nuggets series boils down to this: The Los Angeles Lakers have to turn the Denver Nuggets into a jump shooting team and in order to do so they're going to need Andrew Bynum to close down the lanes to the basket because the Lakers guards won't be quick enough (as usual) to stop the Nuggets guards out on the perimeter. That and Pau Gasol has to continue to score 20+ points a game and he has to do it against one of the better, tougher defenders in the league in Kenyon Martin aka KMART. If the Lakers don't do that the Denver Nuggets could make this a very interesting series and could potentially "upset" the Lakers.

If you're a Lakers fan you shouldn't take this team lightly because this Nuggets team is a different team with Chauncy Billups and minus Allen Iverson. Chanuncy Billups brought leadership to this team that was sorely in need of it and he essentially relieved Carmelloe Anthony of that burden and consequently Anthony has blossomed into one of the best scorers in the NBA.

The Denver Nuggets aren't a high scoring team the way the Lakers are and they're also a half court offensive team which plays right into the Lakers style.

One of the key matchups in the series will be the matchup between Pau Gasol and Kenyon Martin. Kenyon Martin is a good, tough defender and he's going to try to rough up and intimidate Pau Gasol and it should be interesting to see how Pau Gasol reacts and responds.

The Denver Nuggets aren't a small team with the 7'0 Nene, the 6'10 Chris Anderson and the 6'9 Kenyon Martin all getting significant playing time. Nene has the ability to shoot from outside so he can pull Bynum out of the middle to make it easier for the Denver guards to drive to the hoop.

The Nuggets play a lot like the Utah Jazz in that they like to slow down the game into a low scoring affair since they don't have a lot of guys that can score. Outside of Carmello Anthony, Chauncy Billups and J.R. Smith the Nuggets aren't really much of a scoring team and Smith isn't much of a scorer...

End of the day as usual the LA Lakers will have too many weapons for the Denver Nuggets to handle. If the Lakers lose this series it will be because Pau got man handled and Bynum couldn't carry his weight. Kobe's going to do what Kobe does and as usual this deep in the playoffs it'll be up to his teammates to pull their weight offensively. If we've learned anything about this Lakers team it's that Kobe can't win it alone.