Nuggets go up in smoke against Lakers and on freeway

As omens go, it probably wasn’t good for the Denver Nuggets, who were already underdogs, to see their bus to Staples Center catch fire.

Actually, it was just the first of their two buses and it only belched smoke on the Harbor Freeway, as opposed to actually bursting into flame.

Nevertheless, as a sign of things to come, it did nicely as the Lakers put the Nuggets to the torch today in the opener of this first-round series, winning, 128-114.

In the bad news for the Nuggets, it wasn’t a good performance for the Lakers, who took an early 10-point lead and nodded off as Denver roared back to go up by eight in the second quarter before taking control.

For Kobe Bryant, it was one of the most klutzy starts on record. The NBA’s presumptive MVP, obviously psyched to the gills, forced shot after shot, missing eight of 10 in the first half before scoring 28 of his 32 points in the second half.

The problem for the Nuggets and anyone else who lines up against the Lakers these days is that they’re so much more than Bryant.

Today it was Pau Gasol, the gawky guy who was scoring all the points while everyone was watching Bryant. Making 14 of his 20 shots, Gasol went for 36.

The day got off to a weird start for the Nuggets when their first bus, coming from their hotel in Marina del Rey with eight players and assorted members of the staff, started giving off distress signals.

“The driver turns around to our traveling secretary,” said publicist Eric Sebastian, “and he says, I’m getting smoke in the back, we’re losing power, what do you want me to do?

“Our traveling secretary said, ‘How far are we from Staples Center?’

“The driver said, ‘About seven miles.’

“We said, ‘We need to keep going as far as we can go.’

“And then we hear a loud pop in the back and he slowed down and pulled over. And as soon as we pulled over, we heard another big pop and more black smoke. And you look back at the highway and there’s smoke across the 110.

“And the bus driver said, ‘We need to get everybody off this bus.’

“And everybody kind of gathers their things, pretty light-hearted, but at the same time there’s a little bit of concern. [Eduardo] Najera’s running down the highway, saying ‘I’m getting as far away from this bus as I can!’ ”

The Nuggets’ second bus picked everyone up from the side of the freeway and made it to Staples almost on time.

Then their problems really started, trying to slow the Lakers down.

If only they had someone to bail them out in the series, as they did in real life.

mark.heisler@latimes.com