8B
SPORTS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY, APRIL 28, 2008
>> NBA
Lakers win No.3 against Nuggets; Bryant leads offense
BY ARNIE STAPLETON
ASSOCIATED PRESS
DENVER — The Denver Nuggets just can't seem to keep their emotions or Kobe Bryant in check.
Bryant led a balanced offense with 22 points and the Los Angeles Lakers took a 3-10 lead in their first-round series, routing the flustered Nuggets 102-84 on Saturday.
Game 4 is tonight, and the Nuggets are going to have to get more out of their All-Star duo of Carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson if they hope to take the series back to the Staples Center.
For once, the Nuggets clamped down on defense, but their highflying offense went AWOL as Anthony and Iverson had their worst performance together since the two superstars first teamed up 16 months ago.
"I was getting to the basket, I just wasn't finishing," Iverson said. "And the same thing happened to 'Melo.'"
Anthony and A.I. shot a combined 10-for-38 and finished with 16 and 15 points, respectively.
No thanks to the Lakers, either,
suggested coach Phil Jackson.
"I thought our defense packed it in on them, but they missed some easy shots," Jackson said. "I told the team at halftime. 'They're not going to shoot like this for the whole game. They missed some close shots, some shots they usually make. We'll have to play better defense in the second half."
"But they never showed up. They never got it going."
Iverson sat out all but 1:11 of the fourth quarter, when Nuggets coach George Karl emptied his bench, prompting Anthony to accuse the team of quitting.
"In a game like tonight, on our home court, us giving up as a whole is uncalled for." Anthony fumed. "Yeah. We quit. Everybody. From the coaches to the players, we
quit. And I said it.
"I'm not blaming anyone. I'm not pointing the fingers at nobody. I didn't play worth a (expletive) tonight, and I can accept that. But as a competitor, there's no way that I should lay down and quit and lay down on my team like we did tonight."
Anthony said the Nuggets surrendered in the third quarter, although Karl didn't empty his bench until the fourth quarter.
"You could just sense it," Anthony said. "I'm saying 'we,' because I'm part of this, too. I'm saying I quit. We all just gave up."
At least one teammate concurred.
"That's the way it seemed," Kenyon Martin said. "Everybody came out of the game. A.I. came out, and he leads the league in minutes. It's frustrating."
"Well, I don't think I quit," Karl retorted. "... In the fourth quarter, I tried to find some answers. ... I don't think that's a fair, I think 'Melo's emotional right now, he's frustrated right now, as we all are."
Bryant said he never sensed the Nuggets had given up until the very end.
"Well, they're down 20-something points with two minutes to go." Bryant said. "But not until that point."
Bryant had a placid first half himself (8 points of 3-of-8 shooting) but scored nine quick points in the third quarter to put the Lakers ahead 64-51 and quiet the Pepsi Center crowd that loves to hate him.
Bryant has always played well in Colorado, where fans have persistently heckled him ever since he was charged with sexual assault at a ski resort in the Rocky Mountains in 2003, even after the criminal case was dismissed and a civil suit settled.
Anthony drew a technical foul
— Denver's seventh in the series
— after he was stripped on his way
to the basket, leading to a breakaway by Bryant that stretched the Lakers' lead to 78-61 with 2:33 left in the third.
Los Angeles took an 83-64 lead into the fourth quarter and never looked back as Karl sent in the likes of Yakhouba Diwara, Chucky Atkins and Steven Hunter into the game.
Is that quitting? No way, said Eduardo Najera.
"We can point fingers but at the end of the day we missed shots. Tonight, we just missed a lot of layups, easy, wide-open shots," Nujera said.
The Nuggets, who have lost seven straight playoff games, figured they could get to the rim and the foul line more than they had in the first two games in Los Angeles. They got to the rim all right, but the shots didn't fall and the whistles didn't sound.
By Karl's count, Anthony and Iverson were 1-for-20 on laups.
The Nuggets limped to the locker room trailing 53-46 at halftime with 'Melo and A.I. a combined 5-for-21, pretty much negating the boost they got from forward Linas Kleiza's start despite a hyper-extended elbow. He finished with 15 points and nine boards.
"Your spirits have to be broken somewhat if you're the home team after a game like today, but you don't make it to this level if you aren't resilient." Lakers guard Derek Fisher said. "You always come back the next time feeling you can do the things better that you didn't do the time before."
Iverson had no answers on this night.
"I've been in a lot of playoff series," he said. "I don't think I've ever been this frustrated."
Neither has Anthonv.
"In my five years here, this is the first time I've felt like this," Anthony said. "This one hurt. It hurt bad."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant gestures after hitting a three-point basket against the Denver Nuggets in the fourth quarter of the Lakers' 102-84 victory in Game 3 of their first-round playoff series in Denver on Saturday. The Lakers have won all three games of the best-of-seven game series as they head into Game 4 tonight.
Avalanche's goalies trade places; sub could start in Game 3 of series
NHL
BY ARNIE STAPLETON ASSOCIATED PRESS
DENVER — Just two weeks ago, Jose Theodore sheepishly was fending off comparisons to Hall of Famer Patrick Roy that were coming at him fast and furious like so many shots from the Minnesota Wild.
Now, he's sick and the Colorado Avalanche are ailing.
Theodore has been pulled in each of the Avs' two losses in the Western Conference semifinal series at Detroit, where he surrendered eight goals in less than
Peter Budaj has stopped 19 of 20 shots in his place, leading to speculation that he'll get the start in Game 3 when the series shifts to Denver on Monday night.
four periods.
"We'll talk about everything," Colorado coach Joel Quenneville said. "But Jose has been our guy. Coming off what he went through is not easy. Budaj did a nice job in relief."
The Red Wings successfully switched their goaltenders midway through the first round of the playoffs, benching Dominik Hasek in Game 4 while losing their second
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straight in Nashville, and Chris Osgood has won all four starts since.
Avs forward lan Laperriere suggested the solution in Colorado might not have anything to do with who's minding the net.
"I think we need to play better in front of our goalie," Lapertiere said. "We're not playing as strong as we did in front of our goalie as we did in the first series."
Theodore said he'll be ready to start Game 3. "but it's not my call."
The banged-up Avalanche have more concerns than just their goaltender. Peter Forsberg didn't play in either of the first two games after the team said he aggravated a strained groin in the skatearound before Game 1.
"He knows his body and he said he was unable to go," Quenneville said after Game 2. "He's made a real impact since he's been there. He gives the opposition a lot to think about. We think he's pretty close."
Detroit coach Mike Babcock is counting on Colorado coming back at full strength in Denver.
"Forsberg will be back. Thedore is sick. He'll be back, and he'll be better." Babcock said.
That's part of his message about not relaxing with a 2-0 lead like the Red Wings did in the first round.
"All we have to do is go back to the last series. We were in the same scenario, and we went to Nashville and didn't win a game (until Game 6)," Babcock said.
With Forsberg out and watching and Theodore sick and struggling, nobody has capitalized more than Johan Franzen, who had two goals in Detroit's series-opening 4-3 win and scored three times in the Red Wings' 5-1 victory Saturday night.
To get back into this series, the Avalanche are going to have to figure out a way to stop the "Mule."
"He's got a hot stick right now," Quenneville said. "Everything he touches seems to be going in. We have to be a little more tighter to him."
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