Nuggets expected to be hard to stop, easy to like

Wait, the Lakers actually get along with these guys?

After tense, acrimonious playoff clashes the last two years with the Phoenix Suns, the Lakers face the zany yet noncombative Denver Nuggets in the first round.

The coaches seem to like each other. The players can’t stop complimenting each other. There are no behind-the-scenes books that detail the alleged evils of the Lakers.

Instead of being hounded by Raja Bell, Kobe Bryant will be guarded by Anthony Carter. Instead of coaching against quasi-nemesis Mike D’Antoni, Phil Jackson will move pieces against George Karl, whose son happens to play for the Lakers.

There are no spiteful, scalding plots as Game 1 approaches, Sunday at Staples Center.

“It is different, isn’t it?” Jackson surmised.

And also some of the same.

The Nuggets and their 110.7 points a game will be a lot like the Suns, although their offense comes from two main sources -- Allen Iverson (26.4 points a game) and Carmelo Anthony (25.7 points), who were third and fourth in the league in scoring.

“They’re a team that’s got two great players that can explode at any time,” forward Lamar Odom said.

The Lakers earned the top spot in the Western Conference by winning eight of their last nine games, but then they caught a break when Utah and Houston finished fourth and fifth.

In other words, the Lakers are on the softer side of the West bracket, managing to avoid San Antonio, Phoenix, New Orleans or, to a lesser degree, Dallas until the conference finals, should the Lakers get there.

Of course, they won’t look that far ahead. Jackson set the standard with his recent assessment that the West would be demanding no matter what.

“It’s not like last year, where the first team won 67 games and the eighth team won 42 games in our conference,” Jackson said. “There’s no disparity like that in wins. You’re going to draw tough teams. It’s going to be a difficult playoffs.”

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Bryant, who might win his first most valuable player award, lobbied for Jackson to gain some recognition as well.

“I’m kind of appalled that he’s only won one” coach of the year award, Bryant said. “If people don’t want to give him the credit that he deserves, then they’re just idiots.”

Jackson was the league’s coach of the year in 1995-96, after the Chicago Bulls went a record-setting 72-10 during the regular season.

New Orleans Coach Byron Scott appears to be the front-runner for this season’s award.

Ballots from NBA writers for all awards were collected Thursday, with the results announced sporadically throughout the first two rounds of the playoffs.

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In a poignant moment, Bryant was asked if he could have ever envisioned the Lakers doing this well before the season began.

“No,” he said, before explaining how it happened. “The development of our younger players and the development of Andrew Bynum, the chemistry that we have on this ball club -- all that [got] put into the pot, and [Pau] Gasol’s trade, we just kind of went off from there.”

The team wouldn’t be satisfied going a round or two in the playoffs, Bryant said.

“We talked about it in training camp that our goal was to win a championship,” he said. “It’s not to play for eight seeds or seventh seeds. It’s to contend for a title, and we put ourselves in a good position. Now we have to take care of the job.”

Will it happen?

“We’re a very, very close group,” he said. “We enjoy watching each other do well. We’re very supportive of each other when we struggle. When you have that, then you have championship DNA.”

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The Karl family might be divided for a couple of weeks after the Nuggets’ coach heard from his son, Lakers rookie Coby Karl.

“He called me at 7:15 [Thursday] morning, his time. I’m going, ‘What are you doing up?’ He threw some trash at me. I don’t think we’re going to talk much during the series,” George Karl told reporters in Denver.

Won’t it be hard not speaking to your son?

“Why would it be hard talking to a guy who’s basically trash-talking you with insults?” Karl said jokingly. “He’s earned the right to do that a little bit, they’ve earned the right to do that a little bit. It doesn’t mean I have to put up with it.”

Coby Karl is on loan to the Lakers’ Development League team, but will return to the Lakers after the D-Fenders’ playoff run is over.

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Gasol has never won a playoff game, going 0-12 with the Memphis Grizzlies after they were swept by San Antonio in 2004, Phoenix in 2005 and Dallas in 2006.

It’s probably a safe bet he’ll win one now.

“I’m definitely looking forward to it,” he said. “Not so much because of the past, but because of the opportunity we have as a team.”--

mike.bresnahan@latimes.com