Bryant Leads Lakers To Game Two Victory

The chants of MVP filled Staples Center as Kobe Bryant headed to the free throw line. Bryant's 20 points in the first quarter foreshadowed was was to come. After seeing Chris Paul score 32 points the night before, Bryant decides to surpass his performance by scoring 49 points of his own legitimizing his MVP candidacy. Bryant was also able to get his other teammates involved by contributing 10 assists. He was one shy of his playoff career high in both points and assists.

Allen Iverson, who faced the Lakers in the 2001 NBA Finals, tried to shoot Denver back into the game after trailing by ten points heading into the 4th quarter and that he did, for a brief moment. The Nuggets cut the 10 point lead in half but the Lakers MVP wasn't going to let that happen. Number 24 was in a great shooting rhythm through out the whole game and turned it up an extra notch in the last 5 minutes of the fourth quarter. The final score was 122-107 in favor of Los Angeles.

Bryant did have some help from his supporting cast. Pau Gasol had a drop in his point total from game one scoring 18 points in game two. Derek Fisher and Luke Walton combined for 28 points and 8 assists. Unfortunately Lamar Odom had an off game, finding himself in foul trouble through out the whole game and only managed to contribute 4 points and 8 assists to the Lakers victory.

Denver made a line up change from game one by starting Kleiza in hopes of giving them both an offensive and defensive boost. It showed to be a good move by coach Karl when they only trailed by one at the end of the first quarter, 33-32. Carmelo and Iverson put up 23 and 31 points but at the end of the night it wasn't enough to withstand the Lakers, or should I say Kobe Bryant's, scoring tear. The Nuggets sent an extra man at Kobe but even then they couldn't stop MR. 81.

The series moves to Denver for game 3 Saturday at 5:30 with L.A. leading the series two games to none. We shall see how the Lakers deal with the pressure of playing on the road and what type of energy the Nuggets bring to the game playing in front of their home crowd.