Even Afterward, Denver Has No Defense : Everything That Could Go Wrong Against the Lakers Did Go Wrong

Catastrophe came, as expected, to the Denver Nuggets Saturday afternoon, with every fear about a confrontation between the Lakers’ bullish offense and the Nuggets’ matador defense in the NBA Western Conference final being realized during a 139-122 Laker rout.

The Lakers ran and scored; the Nuggets ran and watched and inbounded the basketball, and Game 1 of this best-of-seven series thoroughly succeeded in living up to its advertisement.

Surveying the wreckage, Denver Coach Doug Moe gathered his tattered troops together in the visitors’ locker room of the Forum and greeted them with this pronouncement: “Fellas, isn’t it great to be alive?”

On this day, the Nuggets had to be thankful for small favors.

And give thanks they did, for such matters as:

--Pat Riley’s benevolence. Had the Laker coach not begun substituting early and often in the second half, Denver might have been in for an all-time embarrassment. Consider that the Lakers had 80 points by halftime (a club playoff record). Magic Johnson attempted only five shots, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar played just 26 minutes. The possibilities here were staggering.

--No more pre-series jitters. Or at least that’s the big hope in Denver, especially in the case of rookie Willie White, an off-guard starting in place of injured point guard Lafayette (Fat) Lever. “The poor kid was scared to death,” Moe said of White. Even more scary were the kid’s final numbers: 2 points and 7 turnovers in 13 minutes.

--And finally, for the final buzzer to Game 1. As veteran center Dan Issel gratefully noted, “Thank God this only counts for one game. If it counted for more than one, they’d call the series tonight.”

Some might have been tempted to do just that after Saturday’s first two periods: Put the Nuggets out of their misery.

It certainly wasn’t a pretty sight, the Lakers ganging up on the skittery White, upsetting him and the flow of the Denver offense, and turning countless turnovers into countless fast-break baskets.

The Lakers shot 66% in the first half. “But they were all layups,” Nugget forward Bill Hanzlik said. “When they’re all easy (shots), 66% isn’t too tough.”

The main problem, as Hanzlik saw it, was that the Nuggets “played dumb first off. That, and we didn’t work as hard as we could.

“When you do both of those things, it’s like taking cyanide against the Lakers. They’ll murder you.”

The Lakers have done it before during this postseason tournament, first to hobbled Phoenix and then to humbled Portland. Denver may have beaten the Lakers twice during the regular season, but the Lakers have been nearly unbeatable in these playoffs.

The Nuggets had to be prepared for the worst.

“There’s been so much hype about the Lakers being the Team of the Century,” Hanzlik said. “People read it and think you have no shot.”

Some of those people might have worn Denver uniforms. Moe said the Nuggets were intimidated. Denver forward Calvin Natt said the Nuggets lacked intensity.

“How intense can you be when they (the Lakers) are always on the fast break?” Natt said. “It’s hard to be intense when you’re chasing guys 30, 40 feet in front of you.”

What can the Nuggets possibly do to change things from here on out? For one, Hanzlik said, they have to give short notice to the long odds.

“It’s like going to the races,” he said. “Here’s a horse that has no shot. But you’ve seen him run, you know his past history. It may be 15-1 odds, but you still bet on him.

“We’ve beaten the Lakers twice this year. There’s no reason why we can’t again.”

There’s one problem, however, with Hanzlik’s horse-race scenario: The jockey is green.

Point guard is the key position in Denver’s offense, and a steady hand is needed to set the circus in motion. White clearly was lacking in Game 1.

“Our offense is based on movement, and we were having trouble completing passes,” Issel said. “It’s awfully unfair to ask a rookie, who hasn’t played (point guard) all year, to come in and start in the opening game of the conference final against the Lakers.

“Our offense was so bad in the beginning, it put an unbelievable amount of pressure on our defense. And we’re not the greatest defensive team in the world.”

White said he had to fight the feeling of “thinking it’s all my fault. I’m not gonna say I let my teammates down. I’ll bounce back.

“The Lakers tried to take advantage of me as a rookie. They were trapping me, putting pressure on me. That happens to be a fact--I know that they’re going to try to do that.”

In preparation for Game 2, Moe admitted that he may consider changing point guards. Maybe he’ll start Mike Evans. Maybe he’ll move Hanzlik over from forward.

“We miss Fat,” Moe said. But as even the coach had to concede, Game 1 amounted to more than the Nuggets desperately seeking Lever.