Considering the Lakers' shooting woes from the field, from deep, and from the free throw line, a 7-point game isn't bad. Considering the history of this series, it might actually be pretty good.
Nonetheless, Kobe is carrying this team. Gasol was good early; we need more. We also need Ariza to get going in the second half. A postseason Odom sighting would be supercool. But a lot of this comes down to defense. The Nuggets have had their way in the paint. It's a layup/dunk line out there, and the Nuggets have a 30-19 advantage on the boards. If the Lakers can clean that up, they'll be in good shape.
A point on the Fisher block/charge call. I only saw the one replay, and I wasn't able to get a good enough look at this, so I'll need to see more before I can say for sure. But I'm still not sure about the call. Fisher was outside of the circle, so that's not an issue. The question is, did he have position? And contrary to popular belief, it's not about his feet being set at the time of contact. It's about his torso having position at the moment the offensive player leaves his feet. See here. And I'm not yet sure that that was the case. Might actually have been an excellent call, but hopefully they'll show the replay again so we can get another look.
So, how do you look at this? Is this bad, because playing like this won't get the Lakers a win? Or is it good, because the deficit is enough to motivate them in the second half, but not enough to take them out of the game? You tell me.