The Nuggets’ problems defy easy answers

The dynamic point guard with the bright yellow headband, the one who had the sellout crowd buzzing Friday night when he finished plays with confident ease and faked defenders out of their expensive shoes, wasn’t named Allen Iverson.

While Iverson struggled to find a rhythm with what’s left of the Denver Nuggets, Smush Parker led the Lakers to their third straight victory and fourth in their last five games. Iverson joked before the game that the high altitude in Denver has left him gasping for air, but on Friday at Staples Center it was the Lakers’ elevated game that left him and his teammates breathless.

Parker scored a season-high 23 points and Kobe Bryant didn’t make a field goal until the third quarter but served up 10 assists as the Lakers overwhelmed the Nuggets, 123-104. Iverson scored 16 points and wasn’t much of a factor; the small, quick guard who gave the Lakers fits -- and not for the first time -- was Earl Boykins, who scored 24 points and nearly got the Nuggets back into the game with a 15-point second quarter.

The Lakers were simply too quick and too deep for the Nuggets, as they’ve been on most nights against most opponents. Losing Lamar Odom, Kwame Brown and Chris Mihm to injuries has done little to stop them in a season that is showing every sign of lasting at least through the conference finals.

Parker said he expected “a lot more” from Iverson and the Nuggets, “but I’m more pleased with the performance of this team,” he said after the Lakers recorded a season-high 39 assists. “Our ball movement was good, and we moved it from side to side.”

Andrew Bynum, criticized by Coach Phil Jackson on Thursday for his defensive lapses at Sacramento, responded Friday with 10 rebounds, 19 points and a career-high six blocks. Parker, who took Thursday’s game to overtime but was told by Jackson that “there were some things in the game where he didn’t take advantage of his role,” took the initiative Friday and took control of the offense while Bryant played setup man.

“I got a bunch of layups and was able to get to the rim on a number of occasions,” Parker said. “They didn’t come out ready to play, and we did. And we didn’t give up the lead late in the second half.”

Iverson may yet affect the Western Conference playoff scramble, but his impact won’t be fully apparent until J.R. Smith and Carmelo Anthony finish their suspensions for their actions in a brawl against the Knicks on Dec. 16. Smith has two games left, and Anthony will miss eight more.

The Nuggets are 2-5 with Iverson in the lineup and 3-5 since the suspensions were imposed, and Coach George Karl is worried about basic survival.

“We can’t dig too big a hole to overcome at the end because our schedule is not good at the end,” Karl, whose team will play 13 of its last 18 games away from Denver.

“That doesn’t mean we can’t win on the road,” Karl added, “but that’s a harder place to win.”

Their loss Friday left them 7-7 on the road and 16-14 overall. Nothing to brag about, but still looking at a playoff berth.

The key to their fortunes may be that Iverson is happy to be out of Philadelphia and is beginning to get accustomed to seeing himself in a Nuggets uniform after wearing the 76ers’ colors for more than 10 seasons.

“The toughest part is looking at old pictures, old highlights,” he said. “Now, I don’t really want to see any of the old highlights and old pictures. I want to see new ones.

“It always makes you think about that situation. But it’s something that I’m going to have to deal with because it’s never going to go away. It’s always going to be there. There’s going to be some Sixer highlight or Sixer picture, Sixer memory.

“I just look at it like with my wife and my kids being a different chapter in my life, and the same thing with my career. Another chapter. And just hopefully I can have some positive memories from being in Denver. Hopefully all this is for the better and I can accomplish what I set out to accomplish my first day in the NBA, and that’s winning a championship.”

Asked if he had found a difference between the East and West, he responded quickly.

“The scoring,” he said, emphatically. “On the East Coast I’d probably be asleep by the [air] time of a lot of the West Coast games, and being on the West Coast, I watch a lot of West Coast games and it seems like every game is over 110 points. And on the East Coast that’s kind of unheard of, for guys to be scoring 140 points.

“But it’s fun. Old style, running up and down the court. Ain’t a whole lot of defense out here.”

The Lakers had the most fun on Friday. “We had a really good time playing as a unit,” Bryant said. “We wanted to make sure we came out with the proper energy and we wanted to make sure we established the tempo.”

That they did, leaving Iverson and the Nuggets gasping in their wake. And, maybe, a lot more teams before this season ends.

*

helene.elliott@latimes.com