Nuggets/Lakers Series Preview

You can probably save the talk about defense.  The series between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Denver Nuggets matches up two of the best offenses in the league, and two of the most prolific scorers in the game in Kobe Bryant and Carmelo Anthony.  Bryant was third in the league in scoring, and he scored 31 ppg on 48% in four games against Denver this year.  Anthony was fifth in scoring, but struggled against the Lakers with under 15 ppg.  Lamar Odom and Trevor Ariza are a couple of talented defenders that match up well with Carmelo.  The Lakers are the favorites in Game 1 at -6.5.

The Nuggets season really got their jumpstart when they traded away Allen Iverson for Chauncey Billups early in the season.  Billups had been to five straight conference finals with Detroit, and now he’s made six straight trips personally by bringing the Nuggets to the Western Conference finals.  The Nuggets are +210 to win the series.

The Lakers on the other hand are doing what was expected of them all along.  This is the team that lost in the NBA Finals a year ago, and then rolled through the regular season for the No. 1 seed in the West.  Through the playoffs the team has seemed to coast along, but you can expect to see an all out effort in each game against this talented Nuggets squad.  The Lakers are -280 favorites to win the series.

There are plenty of matchups that spark my interest in this series.  The first is at point guard, where Derek Fisher should have a lot easier time defending the 32-year old Chauncey Billups than he did against the speedy Aaron Brooks.  Then down low you are going to have the finesse game of the Lakers going up against the physical play of Denver.  Can Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol toughen up and hold their own against Kenyon Marin, Nene, and the Birdman?

This should be an intense series that sparks the Lakers interest.  As such I like LA here.  It seems like people are jumping off of their bandwagon for struggling against Houston, but that was a team I figured they would have problems with since Shane Battier plays Kobe Bryant so well.  Denver just doesn’t have that perimeter defender that can keep up with Bryant, and he’ll have a few monster games.  I see this series going six games, with the Lakers returning to the Finals.

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