Lakers trounce hapless Nuggets

LOS ANGELES: Kobe Bryant has been reluctant to shoot early in recent matches, opting instead to get Shaquille O’Neal and his other Los Angeles Lakers teammates involved in the offence.

With a push from coach Phil Jackson, that changed on Tuesday night. Bryant scored 20 of his 32 points in the first quarter, and O’Neal added 19 points and scored the 9,000th rebound of his career in the third period as the Lakers took command early in beating the hapless Denver Nuggets 126-104. “I think Phil wants me to be more assertive at the beginning of the match, so that’s what I tried to do tonight,” Bryant said. With the playoffs about to begin, look for that strategy to continue. Jackson asked Bryant to be more aggressive offensively in late January, and the result was a streak of 13 matches in which Bryant scored 35 or more points.

The Lakers won 11 of those 13. In the first quarter against the Nuggets, Bryant shot six-of-nine, including two-of-three from three-point range, and went six-of-seven from the foul line. He also had four rebounds, two assists, two steals and only one turnover in the period, which ended with the Lakers on top 42-24. The Nuggets weren’t closer than 14 points after that. It was 69-41 at halftime and 103-73 entering the fourth quarter. Bryant and O’Neal could have done a lot more damage, but the one-sided nature of the game made that unnecessary. Bryant wound up playing 26 minutes and O’Neal played 24, and neither left the bench in the fourth quarter.

The win was the seventh in eight matches for the Lakers, but the three-time defending NBA champions lost any chance of getting home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs when Portland beat Phoenix 120-102. The Lakers will finish fifth or sixth in the Western Conference, depending on what happened last night in the final matches of the regular season. They open the playoffs Saturday or Sunday at Dallas, Minnesota or Portland. If Minnesota beats Memphis and Portland beats the Los Angeles Clippers, the Lakers will finish sixth and face Dallas in the first round.