Nuggets Taken Apart

The NBA trade deadline came and went Thursday and the Lakers remained intact, or whatever passes for that these days.

The roster that has struggled to sustain intensity for nearly three months, yet continues to overcome the injury adversities is the roster that will be left to fulfill the potential, for better or for worse. This is the roster that had lost four of five and the one that played the bully for one of the few times since Thanksgiving with a 131-92 trashing of the Denver Nuggets before 15,159 at the Great Western Forum as Mario Bennett had a career game with 17 points, 13 rebounds and four steals off the bench.

All indications are that no talks involving the Lakers got to the serious stage, meaning that any transactions the rest of the way will come from the waiver wire or other like free agents. So meet their future for the playoffs--the present.

That the deadline came amid the run of three consecutive defeats, to teams they might face in the playoffs was not lost on the Lakers. But neither was the fact that this is the same roster that won 11 in a row earlier in the season, even if that does seem like a Kobe Bryant-lifetime ago, or that they began the night four games behind the team with the best record in the league despite an ongoing run of injuries.

They are as convinced that this team can win the championship as the first day of training camp.

Aren’t they?

“It’s a bad time to ask me that question,” General Manager Mitch Kupchak said. “Ask me that question, say, before the all-star break, I have a much better chance of giving you the comment I’m going to give anyway. But, obviously, when you lose four out of five you look closer and are scrutinized more by the media and fans, and rightly so.

“That raises some eyebrows and gives you a time to look close. Having said that, yes, we feel this team can win the championship. We feel this is a bump in the road.

“We feel confident that this is just what we say it is. A bunch of tough games and tough opponents, two at home and two on the road, that we could have lost any time anyway. We think we’re going to be right where we want to be in two or three weeks.”

Bottom line.

“We can compete for the title this year with this team, yes,” Kupchak said.

There has been help along the way, with one trade that didn’t happen, one that did, and one that did happen and then did not.

For starters, the Damon Stoudamire deal. When he first appeared headed to Houston, Laker Coach Del Harris left no doubt that it would serve as a big boost to the Rockets as they were about to welcome back Hakeem Olajuwon. Stoudamire ending up with the Trail Blazers was hardly a favor to their Pacific Division rival, especially if the talented young point guard re-signs in Portland, but at least Harris was relieved to find that trade more balanced. Kenny Anderson was gone, after all.

Then came Rony Seikaly-to-Utah earlier this week, and more of the Lakers feeling as though they were the ones who got the worst of it, not the Orlando Magic. The break came as the Jazz voided the trade when Seikaly refused to report in a contract huff, before he ended up being shipped to New Jersey.

“He heard Shaq [O’Neal] would cuff him around if he came,” Harris said of Seikaly. “ ‘Oh, no. I’ll stay in the East.’ ”

Thursday, O’Neal had to settle for the Nuggets as a punching bag, getting 19 points and 11 rebounds in 28 minutes of what became the Lakers’ biggest margin of victory of the season, bettering the 35-point victory over the Warriors on Nov. 9. Rick Fox had a game-high 22 points and Kobe Bryant had 21, the latter just one of the contributions from a bench that took advantage of the blowout and injuries to Nick Van Exel and Robert Horry in the final tuneup before the longest trip of the season, a six-game journey that starts Sunday afternoon in Orlando.

“We had to come out and beat these guys by whatever we beat them by,” Bennett said after recording career highs in points, rebounds, steals and minutes (26). “Forget the league, forget the other teams. We had to make a statement to ourselves.”