Nuggets Make Things Tougher on the Lakers : Pro basketball: Denver comes back from 13-point deficit to beat L.A., 110-107.

Here lie Laker dreams.

Their chances of making the playoffs were reduced to two--slim and none--Wednesday night. The Nuggets, who had learned Monday in the Forum how to wipe out a Laker lead, did it again Wednesday night, coming from 13 points behind to win, 110-107.

That reduced the Clippers’ magic number to one and Houston’s to two. The Rockets lead the Lakers by half a game and have the edge in the tiebreaker.

“That was a killer loss for us,” Coach Mike Dunleavy said.

“Kind of crazy to say, but it looked like they wanted it more than we did,” Byron Scott said.

It actually looked as if the Lakers were powerless to stop the Nuggets. The team that says it must win its last thee games, including dates at Sacramento and Portland, has lost four of five.

For more depressing news, Laker fans, your team came out playing as well as it could.

And the Nuggets just turned it around on them.

“We’ve got to do the things we’re supposed to do,” Dunleavy said. “Block out. Control the boards. Another thing, we’ve got to contest some shooters. The thing we lived on, we made people miss shots.”

Not Wednesday.

The Lakers shot 67% in the first quarter, grabbing leads of 7-0, 16-6 and 37-26.

The Nuggets shot 68%, cutting it to 37-31.

The Lakers went up by 13 in the second quarter and 10 in the third.

The Nuggets cut it to 88-84 by the end of the third quarter and nothing in the fourth, going ahead for the first time, 104-103 on Cadillac Anderson’s layup with 1:56 left.

At the other end, Vlade Divac banked in a short hook over Anderson to put the Lakers back in the lead.

For the last time.

The Lakers disrupted the next Denver possession, knocking the ball out of bounds with four seconds left on the shot clock.

The Nuggets set up a play, which went awry. Winston Garland, standing under the basket, looked and looked and looked and saw no one . . . until Reggie Williams sliced inside Scott, tore up the baseline toward the basket, took the inbounds pass and scored on a reverse layup with 1:17 left.

How late in the five-second count did Garland go?

“Probably around eight or nine,” said Denver Coach Paul Westhead, laughing.

Defensive breakdown?

“Absolutely,” Dunleavy said.

“I just lost track of him for a quick second,” Scott said. “I just took my eye off him to see what was going on with Garland. He just sliced inside me. I was amazed he got by me without stepping out. He had to step out. I guess he didn’t.”

With 55 seconds left, Sedale Threatt missed a 20-footer.

At the other end, the Nuggets ran a play that helped beat the Lakers. Garland, double-teamed, threw it back to Mark Macon at the top of the circle. Macon, shooting 38% in his rookie season and 27% to that point Wednesday, stepped up and sank the 20-footer. The Nuggets led, 108-105, with 33 seconds left.

Scott drove the lane, looking for a foul but got only a layup, cutting it to 108-107.

Williams fouled, made only one of two free throws for a 109-107 lead with 21 seconds left.

A.C. Green missed a turnaround eight-footer in the lane.

Garland, fouled with 4.6 seconds left, sank one of two again, making it 110-107.

With no more timeouts, the Lakers had to get the ball up the court. They wound up with nothing better than Green’s shot from half court, which missed.

Scott, the lone remaining co-captain with Magic Johnson and James Worthy gone, was asked if he’d address his teammates before tonight’s game at Sacramento.

“I have nothing to say,” Scott said. “I’ll be honest with you, there’s nothing to say. Everybody on the team knows the situation right now. There’s nothing that has to be said.”

How about:

Help.

Laker Notes

The Nuggets had lost 11 in a row to the Lakers since April 1, 1989. Of the Nugget players and coaches, only Walter Davis remains--and he has been to Portland and back. . . . The Lakers outrebounded the Nuggets in Monday’s first half, 24-9, were outrebounded in the second half, 34-12, and 33-28 Wednesday night. . . . What’s gone wrong up front for the Lakers? Vlade Divac played his best game after four bad ones but had only six rebounds to go with 23 points. Elden Campbell, who had played well recently, had six rebounds in the two games against Denver.