Lakers 96, Nuggets 113: Utterly Shameful

This series is going the full seven. Tonight in Denver the Lakers exhibited not even a little heart, desire or competitiveness, embarassing themselves and everyone who's ever worn or rooted for the purple and gold. Faced with elimination for the second straight game, the Nuggets opened the game with a 13-0 run, withstood a brief Laker comeback in the second quarter and then resumed the blowout, winning by the deceptively close score of 113 to 96. Despite suffering from the flu and the company of his teammates, Kobe Bryant (31 points and four assists) went to battle like a true pro, as he always does. Everyone else took the night off. Andrew Bynum was a total nonfactor, and Pau Gasol (3 points on 1-for-10 shooting, 3 rebounds) played what has to be his worst game as a pro. Ty Lawson (32 points) led the onslaught for the Nugs, who scored a blistering 1.22 points per possession against the worthless Laker D.

More to come later on. This is your postmortem thread.