`POOR PLAY' PAYING OFF NUGGETS NO MATCH DESPITE SORE SHAQ, FREE-THROW WOES LAKERS 89, DENVER 68.Byline: Howard Beck Staff Writer DENVER - Listen long enough and the Lakers will try to steer the conversation back, inevitably, to how many things they're doing wrong, how many poor decisions they made and which quarter of the game they played the worst. How annoying, how positively insufferable, this all must sound to the 28 other teams, most of whom are fortunate to have maybe half the wins of the now 10-1 Lakers, who cruised to an 89-68 victory over the Denver Nuggets Nuggets can refer to several branches of interest:
Current arenas in the National Basketball Association Western Conference Eastern Conference . Coach Phil Jackson
Philip Douglas "Phil" Jackson (born September 17, 1945 in Deer Lodge, Montana) is the current coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, an American professional basketball team. had just been referring to his team's recent play as ``tomfoolery,'' and Rick Fox was fresh off a pointed critique of the Lakers' sloppy win over the Clippers the night before. These self-loathing monologues sound more and more like empty rhetoric, coated in false modesty. Shaquille O'Neal Shaquille Rashaun O'Neal (pronounced "shak-KEEL") (born March 6, 1972 in Newark, New Jersey), frequently referred to simply as Shaq, is an American professional basketball player, generally regarded as one of the most dominant in the National Basketball Association (NBA). , slowed by sore toes, checked in just long enough to score 10 points, the Lakers missed more than half of their foul shots, the entire team took the third quarter off, and they won going away anyway. And so, a small admission, for one night. ``We're playing very well together. Just period,'' said Kobe Bryant Kobe Bean Bryant (born July 23 1978) is an American All-Star shooting guard in the National Basketball Association (NBA) who plays for the Los Angeles Lakers. , who finished with 24 points, 13 rebounds and seven assists. The Nuggets' 68 points were the least they have ever scored against the Lakers and a season-low for a Lakers opponent. ``They looked like the team that played last night, not us,'' said Jackson. With each victory, the Lakers find a new way to work through the November blahs and the occasional bumbling. This time, they learned how to win without O'Neal. Denver knocked a 22-point second-quarter deficit down to six by late in the third. Then the Lakers, with O'Neal on the bench, slapped together a 12-2 run that extended the lead to 73-57 early in the fourth, and the Nuggets faded away in hailstorm See .NET My Services. of missed shots. A night off wasn't what O'Neal planned, but he welcomed it anyway, playing a modest (for him) 34 minutes. ``It's a total team effort,'' Bryant said. ``When Shaquille goes down, we have the responsibility to kind of let him have a night off. He's constantly getting pounded night in and night out. I think he deserves a night off sometimes. ... ``I think it's something that we understand, something we realize,'' Bryant said. ``He was hurting a little bit tonight before the game. He needed a night where he could just relax a little bit.'' That was easy enough. All 12 Lakers scored, and Mitch Richmond Mitchell James ("Mitch") Richmond (born June 30, 1965 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida) is a retired American basketball player in the National Basketball Association. Known as "The Rock," "The Hammer", "The Captain," and "The Scorelord," Richmond was one of the NBA's best pure shooters had his best game this season, finishing with 13 points on 4-of-9 shooting. The Lakers hit 47.3 percent of their field goals and, after a recent lousy stretch of rebounding, dominated the boards 59-36. ``They were shooting the ball well, playing very well,'' O'Neal said. ``So whenever they can do that, it doesn't really matter how many points I score.'' And yet, always room to nit-pick. Jackson could only shake his head over and over as his players combined to miss 13 of 25 free throws - none of them by Lindsey Hunter Lindsey Benson Hunter, Jr. (born December 3 1970, in Utica, Mississippi) is an American professional basketball player in the NBA. He is a guard for the Detroit Pistons in active rotation off the bench. , who didn't go to the line after his 0-for-6 fourth quarter the night before. O'Neal went 2 for 9, and Fox and Samaki Walker Samaki Ijuma Walker (born February 25 1976 in Columbus, Ohio) is an American professional basketball player currently signed with the Milwaukee Bucks of the NBA. [1] each went 0 for 2. ``Look what I started,'' Hunter quipped. Denver, which had won five of its last six games despite the absence of injured Antonio McDyess Antonio Keithflen McDyess (born September 7 1974, in Quitman, Mississippi) is an American professional basketball player in the NBA. MyDyess is listed at 6'9" (2.06 m), 245 lb. (111 kg) and is the starting power forward for the Detroit Pistons. , looked more like the one-dimensional team it is. Former Laker Nick Van Exel Nickey (Nick) Maxwell Van Exel (born November 27 1971 in Kenosha, Wisconsin) is a retired American professional basketball player in the NBA. Van Exel, a 6'1" left-handed point guard, was most well known for his flashy style of play and his ability to hit critical shots during has been carrying the Nuggets with deft shooting, but he went 8 for 22 and finished with just 21 points. No other Denver player scored more than nine, and the Nuggets shot 32.6 percent from the field. And add Van Exel to the chorus of observers who say the Lakers are not only fearsome but improving. ``I think they're better than last year,'' he said, ``and they're still not playing their best. That's scary.'' CAPTION(S): photo Photo: Kobe Bryant goes up for a shot against Denver forward Ryan Bowen in the first quarter. Jack Dempsey/Associated Press |
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