Denver Stays Good to Lakers

He was back at altitude Monday night and just plain back. Some coincidence.

Nick Van Exel’s shot had long ago become as dependable here as it is schizo at sea level. It’s just that he really needed this one, probably more than the Lakers did, a reassurance that came right on schedule with 11 makes in 18 tries, including six of 10 three-point shots, for a game-high 30 points in a 113-94 rout of the Denver Nuggets before 13,817 at McNichols Arena.

“He was just talking to me that his shot had disappeared,” said forward Corie Blount, a witness to such breakout games since they were college teammates at Cincinnati. “Guess he found it.”

Guess so.

Van Exel was at 33.3% the previous two weeks, and 39.3% for the season, although he still contributed significantly to the offense by averaging 8.1 assists during the same five-game stretch. He had 11 baskets in the most recent three outings.

Then he had 11 on Monday alone. It could have happened anywhere, what with Van Exel known to go through prolonged slumps and then do an about-face at the expense of an unsuspecting point guard several times a season, but that it happened here made it seem right on schedule.

With the latest heroics, Van Exel is averaging 19.3 points and shooting 50.5% overall and 50% on three-point baskets in seven career games at McNichols Arena. The other visit of this season, on the night the Lakers learned the extent of Shaquille O’Neal’s knee injury, he tied his team record by making eight from behind the arc, a Feb. 13 contest that ended with him scoring 30 while making 10 of 17 attempts. John Elway needed years before he owned Denver like this.

“Just some buildings, I guess,” said Van Exel, who also had nine assists.

Guess so.

“They were just falling for me tonight,” he said. “I didn’t do anything different or special. They just fell for me tonight.”

From the start: Van Exel had six baskets by intermission, or one less than in the previous two games combined. That was worth 17 points and helped put the Lakers--showing no sign of having played an overtime game at the Forum the night before and a travel schedule that got them to their hotel about 3 a.m.--ahead by 13.

An impressive first half at last. The Nuggets made a move from there, getting within 82-75 late in the third quarter, but the Lakers ended the threat before it could get any more interesting, taking an 87-76 cushion into the final quarter.

Their final basket of the third came on Byron Scott’s 25-foot jump shot with 32.3 seconds remaining, numbers that gained importance not as another scoop of dirt on top of the Nuggets but because those three points became the 15,000th regular-season points of his career. Actually, 15,001.

Twelve days before his 36th birthday, Scott became the 75th player in NBA history to reach the milestone, with only 15 others still active.

“It’s quite an accomplishment, really,” Coach Del Harris said. “Here’s the guy who’s never been the focal point of any offense. Think about it.”

“It’s a huge accomplishment for me, especially with the teams I played on, with Magic [Johnson], Kareem [Abdul-Jabbar] and James [Worthy],” Scott said. “To play with those guys and still get 15,000 is nice.

“It wasn’t a goal or anything like that when I came into the league. But I admit, as it got closer, I started to think about it. I thought it would be nice.”