49er Kobe good as gold

By Mike Bresnahan

April 24, 2008 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

An unsolicited suggestion for the Denver Nuggets: Do not pester, annoy, bother or badger Kobe Bryant.

Kenyon Martin made the apparent mistake in Game 1 of engaging in too many verbal debates with Bryant, who made the Nuggets pay with a Game 2 outburst that drove the Lakers to a 122-107 victory Wednesday at Staples Center.

Bryant shot with precision in the first quarter, turned to a passer in the middle two quarters, and again became a dead-eye shooter in the fourth, finishing with 49 points and 10 assists on a night in which he twice brushed with history and pushed the Lakers to a 2-0 lead over the Nuggets.

He made 18 of 27 shots and sent Denver into slim-chance territory -- teams with a 2-0 deficit lose a best-of-seven series 93.6% of the time in NBA history. Game 3 is Saturday in Denver.

The foundation for Game 2 was built in Game 1, when Bryant and Martin exchanged words and were each given technical fouls.

“I take it as a challenge when there’s a lot of talking going on,” said Bryant, whose playoff high of 50 points came against Phoenix in 2006. “It’s fun. I certainly enjoy it and I think my teammates certainly enjoy it. It’s something we all feed off of.”

Lamar Odom was even more direct.

“Kobe was definitely coming out to prove a point tonight,” he said. “The best can channel that energy.”

This is the Lakers’ first 2-0 lead in a playoff series since 2004, so they’re almost forgiven for lapses that disappeared in a big way in the fourth quarter.

But Luke Walton was again a factor, scoring 18 points in a reserve role, and Pau Gasol had 18 points and 10 rebounds.

Bryant had 20 points in the first quarter, two short of the Lakers’ playoff record for points in a quarter. Elgin Baylor scored 22 in a quarter in a March 1961 game against Detroit.

Then he had 19 in the fourth quarter, again approaching team history before checking out of the game with 2:02 to play.

He was given a standing ovation, to no surprise.

Even the Nuggets were in awe.

“The way he was going, we could have put 10 people on him and probably wouldn’t have stopped him,” Allen Iverson said.

The Nuggets tried to mix it up, inserting Linas Kleiza into the starting lineup in place of Anthony Carter, but they couldn’t extend a short-lived one-point lead midway through the third quarter. Then they began to unravel in the fourth, J.R. Smith and Iverson picking up technical fouls in the last six minutes.

Iverson had 31 points, Carmelo Anthony had 23 points and Smith added 21, but they couldn’t match Bryant in the final quarter. Bryant had 19 points in a 4:19 span before leaving for good.

“It feels like when you’re getting hot that the ball just finds you,” he said.

Bryant often compares himself to a quarterback waiting in the pocket to see what the defense gives, and Wednesday was no different.

He made eight of 10 shots in the first quarter, then turned into a distributor by collecting a total of seven assists in the second and third quarters. He returned to attack mode in the fourth quarter, making six of seven shots.

The Lakers haven’t had a 2-0 lead in a series since winning the first two against Houston in the first round of the 2004 playoffs.

In the end, Coby Karl entered the game with 2:02 to play and became the first son to play against his father’s team in an NBA playoff game.

History was made after all, on a night when Bryant came close to getting there on two occasions.

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Kobe Bryant’s top playoff games

2006 vs. Phoenix

Game 6

2008 vs. Denver

Game 2

2001 vs. Sacramento

Game 4