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The Denver Nuggets couldn't defend Pau Gasol in Game 1 or Kobe Bryant in Game 2.

So, what makes them think they can turn things around in their first-round playoff series against the Los Angeles Lakers?

"We're home, man," Allen Iverson said. "They got a chance to play in front of their home crowd, and we want that same type of advantage playing in front of ours."

The homecourt is about the only thing the Nuggets have successfully defended all season.

They rode the energy of the Pepsi Center to a 33-8 record, including a series of clutch must-win triumphs over the final six weeks that allowed them to reach the playoffs for the fifth straight season.

"It's our turn to hold serve," Nuggets coach George Karl said Thursday. "It's a great challenge, a lot of fun. The homecourt's been kind of our biggest ally all year long."

Game 3 is Saturday and Game 4 is Monday night.

The Nuggets looked haggard as they filtered out of film study Thursday, most of them not wanting to stop and talk about being in a 2-0 hole after allowing a staggering 250 points so far.

"I think it might just be a travel day of getting to bed at 4:30 in the morning," Karl said. "There's a heaviness to waiting sometimes. We'll have a good practice tomorrow. I thought we got a little bit better last night. We didn't get better enough to win the game, but we got a little bit better."

The Nuggets hung with the Lakers until the fourth quarter after watching Gasol tear them up for 36 points in a 128-114 loss in Game 1. But Bryant scored 19 points in a 4:19 stretch of the fourth quarter, leading L.A. to a 122-107 win Wednesday night.

The Nuggets, however, insist they'll show up Saturday with a swagger and not a stagger.

"My sense is all year long when this team had its true back to the wall, they've responded great and the homecourt's been a big part of that," Karl said. "I think there's an energy out there. Statistically there's all sorts of positives that come our way here. We play better defence here. We make people miss more shots here. ..."

And all those clutch wins late in the season give the Nuggets plenty of confidence they can come back on L.A.

"Well, to us they were pretty much like playoff games," Marcus Camby said. "Going down that stretch, especially, late March and all of April, were all must-wins. So, we pretty much know how to perform under pressure."

The Nuggets ranked next-to-last in the NBA by allowing 107 points a game in the regular season despite leading the league in both blocks (6.72) and steals (9.17). So, it's not surprising the Lakers have piled up 250 points.

"It's a high-paced game," Gasol said. "They keep it real fast, an up-and-down game. You take advantage of what they give you."

Opponents haven't had as much success against the Nuggets in Denver, and Bryant said it's imperative for the Lakers to duplicate their energy, execution and emotion on the road to change that.

"Not getting too high, not getting too low. Even keel, keeping our poise," Bryant said. "They're a great home team. I think altitude is a factor the first few minutes. They play with a lot of energy.

"I think we're doing OK, we're playing typical playoff basketball. That being said, we haven't put together four explosive quarters that I think we're capable of. The important thing is getting the Ws."

Lakers point guard Derek Fisher isn't expecting any surprises from the Nuggets in Game 3, either.

"I don't think you're going to see wholesale changes. They believe in their style of play," Fisher said. "Defensively, I think they'll play even more zone than we saw last night. I don't expect them to do too many things differently than they've done so far. I just expect them to do them better on their home court."

So do the Nuggets.

"We still feel good about ourselves," Linas Kleiza said. "We've got to do what we're supposed to do, and that's defend our homecourt. We've been good all year at our home, so it should be exciting if we do that and the series is back where it started."

Notes: Ronny Turiaf, who missed Game 2 with tonsillitis, is expected to make the trip to Denver on Friday. ... Karl on his son, Coby, playing against the Nuggets in Game 2: "It's a proud moment for the family that is to be cherished and celebrated. But it will not be done in the next two weeks."

It feels blasphemous to even think it, much less say it aloud, but these Lakers, Kobe and Pau's Lakers that is, just might end up being better than Kobe and Shaq's dysfunctional, but brilliant bunches of the early 2000s.

It's still very, very early. And this Denver Nuggets team the Lakers easily dispatched 128-114 Sunday afternoon in Game 1 of their best-of-seven first-round playoff series seemed like it could implode at any moment.

But every time you watch Gasol play, and the way the Lakers play with him, and the way Kobe plays with him, when it all really gets rolling, and especially when the other team doesn't bother to play much defense, you can't help but think it.

These Lakers, Kobe and Pau's Lakers, could end up being better than any of those Diesel-powered teams.

"Pau is a great, great basketball player and this is the perfect offense for him," said Lakers forward Luke Walton, who is one of just three Lakers who played with both O'Neal and Gasol.

"When we get everyone involved, and (Pau) is in the middle, finishing plays and making passes, we are a very tough team to beat."

The triangle offense, in simplistic terms, is designed to create spacing, open passing lanes, and easy jump shots. Gasol excels at all three of these skills, which is exactly why the Lakers have wanted to trade for him for the past two years.

Sunday afternoon, Gasol had his best game as a Laker, dropping 36 points, grabbing 16 rebounds and most importantly, dishing out eight assists.

"I think this offense has freed him up a little bit and showcased more of what he can do instead of being in the post all the time," Bryant said of the Lakers Spanish acquisition.

The Lakers, during the Shaq-Kobe era, ran the triangle offense, but like they are now. During the 2004 NBA Finals, their last dance before that dynasty fell, the triangle was so ineffective the Lakers dumbed it down, then largely abandoned it.

But now with Gasol in the middle, it looks elegant. Simple even.

Sunday, he had the Denver Nuggets chasing the ball around the court, franticly trying to catch up. By the end, they were so frustrated, Allen Iverson blew up at a referee and got himself ejected, Anthony Carter was slamming Bryant into the basket support and Kenyon Martin was jawing with him during breaks in the action.

They tried to make adjustments. Coach George Karl called some zone defenses, tried the 6-foot-9 Martin on the 6-foot-6 Bryant, then the ultra-quick J.R. Smith on him. But nothing worked.

The Lakers were just too good. Too fast, too smooth, to smart.

After the game, Karl came into the interview room looking ragged. He wore a simple, team issued long-sleeve t-shirt, then, half-heartedly tried to claim this was just one game.

"I don't think anybody in our lockeroom is deflated," he said, not seeming entirely convinced of his own words. "I think it's good we have two days to put some pieces together and study the film."

In other words, figure out just how and why and what the Lakers did to beat them so easily.

"I don't think it was Gasol," Karl said. "I think the film will show the L.A. Lakers tore us up," Karl said. "I think Coby Karl could've scored the baskets."

The other thing, and it's a big thing actually, is that Kobe and Pau's Lakers actually seem to dig each other. Their elegant, team-oriented, ball-sharing approach on the court has created a happy lockeroom.

Players on the bench cheer for those in the game, spend half their post-game interviews lauding the play of their teammates and celebrating their shared achievements.

Gasol has the perfect temperament for this club. He's happy to be Kobe's running mate and let Bryant hear the M-V-P chants.

And with Odom, who was actually being criticized last year for not being selfish enough, as the No. 3 option, a rather harmonious pecking order has been created.

"We're actually a very close team," Odom said. "This is a team where one day on the plane, I might have a conversation with Ira Newble, the next day might be Sasha, the next day might be Pau. We try not to get segregated at all."

The Lakers of the Shaq-Kobe years were anything but. In fact, they were defined so entirely by their discord you wondered if they began to need the "creative tension" in order to rev the engines up.

Phil Jackson had to be in full Zen-master mode just to keep things to a war of snippy words and glowering looks.

To some extent, Bryant still needs that dynamic to get himself into rhythm and his competitive fire lit. But now that energy is directed outward, at opponents, at referees - he led the league in technical fouls after all - and even the occasional slight by the media.

Sunday, Bryant began the game in a woeful shooting slump, missing nine of the first 10 shots he took. At first, he tried to stay poised to correct the problem. But then he looked up and was still just 5 for 20 from the floor.

It wasn't until Carter slammed him into the basketball support midway through the third quarter that Bryant found his touch. And from there, he proceeded to jaw with Martin loud enough to draw a technical foul during an exchange at the free-throw line late in the third.

"Just a healthy conversation," Bryant joked, when asked what he and Martin were talking about.

And about whether the chippyness of Sunday's second half would color the rest of the series with angry subplots, Bryant said:

"Hopefully," he said with a laugh, then turned serious.

"It's playoff basketball, this is when the game is most fun. Guys want to win and they're going to commit hard fouls, play physical, talk a little trash. "

After chasing the Lakers around Sunday afternoon, that's all the Nuggets had left. They got frustrated, lost their cool and all but threw their hands up by the end.

These Lakers are really good.

It's early, so don't say it too loudly just yet, but they might end up being great.