ROCKY ROAD FOR LAKERS L.A. CAN'T EXTEND WIN STREAK TO 3 DENVER 95, LAKERS 83.

Byline: Ross Siler Staff Writer

DENVER - The theme of the night was set by Kobe Bryant as he pulled a purple wristband from his locker 90 minutes before Wednesday's game. Asked how he was doing, Bryant responded, ``Trying to put together a three-game winning streak.''

This wasn't about Bryant returning for the first time to the state in which he once stood accused of sexual assault. It was about his team trying to find a measure of progress more than a third of the way through the season.

So the Lakers fell behind by 17 in the first half, shot 5 of 29 from 3-point range, barely defended the basket and lost 95-83 at Pepsi Center to a Denver Nuggets team that spent 10 hours trying to get home from Sacramento while the Lakers were curled up in bed.

They should have stayed there.

For the seventh time this season, the Lakers failed to extend a winning streak to three games, leaving coach Rudy Tomjanovich, hair mussed, nearly twitching with anger as he addressed reporters afterward.

``It just seems like we've been in a position,'' Tomjanovich said, ``to take a nice step forward after winning two games, which we've done several times, and it was a big bleeping disappointment. ... We just didn't have it. They're the guys who've been up all night. This has happened before. Is it a psychological thing that that's all the success we can take and it's enough? I don't know. But we've got to grow out of that.''

Only six of the NBA's 30 teams have yet to win three consecutive games this season. Those would be Atlanta, Charlotte, New Jersey, New Orleans, Portland and the Lakers, who have the lone winning record (18-15) of the bunch.

Two days after their biggest victory of the season, coming back in the fourth quarter against the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Lakers headed for the bus with tails between their legs, Tomjanovich having blasting the team at halftime and after the game.

It was a bad stop on the schedule all around. With their flight from Minnesota delayed two hours Tuesday, the Lakers canceled practice later in the day. Then the Lakers had Wednesday's shootaround in a hotel ballroom after a snowstorm hit Denver.

But Tomjanovich was almost offended when the excuse of not shooting a ball in two days was offered.

``I just don't want to have any excuse in this thing,'' Tomjanovich said. ``We just got to find a way. Things are going to come up. Those are minor things. And dammit, we've got to find a way to grow up and put a string together.''

Bryant played on a Lakers team that won 19 consecutive games in the 1999-00 season. Asked about his disappointment at not being able to win three in a row, Bryant answered, ``It's frustrating but it's a challenge.''

As Tomjanovich put it, the players who made the shots to beat Minnesota didn't against Denver. Brian Cook, Jumaine Jones and Chucky Atkins combined to go an unsightly 0 for 18 from 3-point range.

``It was something we've been looking forward to doing,'' Cook said of a potential three-game winning streak. ``We've just got to find a way to do it as a group. Not individually. As a group.''

After watching the Lakers give up 52 points in the paint, including three successive alley-oop dunks by Kenyon Martin and Carmelo Anthony in the fourth quarter, Lamar Odom voiced his frustration, saying ``48 minutes just went by.''

``We're not playing up to our potential,'' he added. ``I'm not just talking about getting 110 points a game. I'm talking about the smaller things. The details of basketball, the science: rotating, helping, rebounding. We're just not doing that.''

The Nuggets endured one of worst possible trips in this NBA era of chartered flights, not arriving home until 8:30 a.m. Wednesday. They played Tuesday night in Sacramento, then had their plane grounded at the airport because of fog.

After finally getting airborne, the plane circled the Denver airport searching for a break in the snow before diverting to Colorado Springs. The Nuggets then elected to bus the remaining 70 miles, a trip that ended up taking three hours on treacherous roads.

Bryant finished with 16 points, his third-fewest of the season, and settled for fadeaway 3-pointers much of the night. Eight of his 14 shots were from beyond the arc.

As for the reception he received, Bryant was booed during player introductions and almost every time he touched the ball. He also heard some cheers, as he noted afterward. But the Nuggets didn't even draw a sellout crowd to the game.

``It's really not a big deal to me,'' Bryant said. ``It really isn't. I have a lot of support out here. You can't please everybody. Some people, they're not going to like me. Some people do. ... This game really wasn't on my mind. Just coming in and playing in another city.''

Ross Siler, [phone]

ross.siler(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, 2 boxes

Photo:

(1 -- color)Denver center Nene, left, goes in for a dunk past the Lakers' Lamar Odom, who said after the game L.A. is not playing up to its potential.

Getty Images

(2) Kenyon Martin shoots against Lakers forward Lamar Odom Wednesday night at the Pepsi Center.

Jack Dempsey/Associated Press

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(2) GAME RECAP