Stunned Lakers count on road game form in Denver's lair
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Frustrated after losing homecourt advantage to the Nuggets in their Western Conference finals, the Los Angeles Lakers will put their enviable form on the road to the test in Saturday's Game Three in Denver.
The best-of-seven series is tied at 1-1 after the gritty Nuggets came from 14 points behind to upset the Lakers 106-103 at Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles on Thursday.
Although the Nuggets have won their last 16 games at home, the top-seeded Lakers will look to draw inspiration from their league-best record of 29-12 on the road in the regular season.
"We're not the best road team in NBA for no reason," Lakers guard Kobe Bryant told reporters after his team had lost to the Nuggets for the first time in their last 12 playoff meetings.
"This is playoff basketball. A win is a win period. They came here to do what they needed to do and they have home court advantage now. Now it's time to go to Denver, see if we can do the same."
Asked to explain how the Nuggets had turned around a 14-point deficit early in the second period, Bryant replied: "It was frustrating, but this is what they do.
"Denver is an explosive team and they can make up very, very quickly. They can go on runs very, very quickly. We just gotta pay attention to them."
The Nuggets have not lost at home since a 97-95 defeat by the Houston Rockets on March 9 and coach George Karl is banking on home advantage to lift his team for the next two games.
MORE ROOM
"The first two games have been pretty close," he said. "They won one and we won one, and the total score's just one point (different). Hopefully the home crowd will give us a little more room.
"They're a good defensive team but we think we can get in the gaps and when we do we make things happen. I think it's going to be a long series."
Lakers coach Phil Jackson accepts his team face a daunting challenge in Denver for games three and four.
"They play at a different level on their home court," he said. "We're going to have to be able to be prepared for that and they've shown us that they've been able to come to our court and play us tit for tat."
Thursday's game in Los Angeles was littered with 56 fouls and 72 free-throw attempts and Jackson will especially want his team to limit the number of times they get into foul trouble.
"If Chauncey (Billups) gets 16 free throws in a game, we're in trouble, that's for sure," he said. "We can't allow him to get 16 free throws in a contest. That's like giving up 15 points.
"Those two guys between them, Carmelo (Anthony) and Chauncey had a lot of free throws."
Anthony and Billups made 23 of 30 free throws in Game Two, and barely missed any when it came down to the crunch at the end of the fourth quarter.
(Editing by Nick Mulvenney)
