Nuggets could make trouble

As if printing up metaphors for the press to bash him over the head with, within hours of Denver clinching its playoff berth, Carmelo Anthony was arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated.

No, it’s not everything you need to know about the Nuggets.

No, they’re not thugs, even if they’re one of the NBA’s top devotees of hip-hop culture.

Yes, they’re painfully young and despite an impressive array of talent, they play (and some of them live) that way.

No, it’s not the matchup of the Lakers’ dreams -- Denver won 50 games, after all -- but because they had to play some West team, it’s as good as they could have hoped for.

The Lakers swept the Nuggets, 3-0, winning by an average of 16.3 points.

Kobe Bryant barely had to exert himself, averaging 22 points against them, averaging only 15 shots a game and making 57% of them.

The Nuggets aren’t one of the physical teams (like Phoenix or Utah) that could have punished the Lakers inside with Andrew Bynum out.

The Nuggets haven’t even faced Pau Gasol as a Laker yet. Bynum played in the first two games; the Lakers won the third, 116-99, with Bynum out, before Gasol was acquired.

The Nuggets are No. 2 on offense and No. 29 on defense, but for a team that lives and dies on its point total, their offense has holes:

Anthony and Allen Iverson are friendly but not complementary. Both need the ball and don’t make the game easier for each other.

With all their problems, the Nuggets would still be scary on offense with good outside shooting, but they were No. 19 in three-point accuracy.

Their shot selection, if you want to call it that, makes it remarkable -- or shows how good their individual parts are -- that they’re No. 6 in field-goal percentage.

The way to control a running team is attack it inside, which is what the Lakers were built to do with Gasol (and one day Bynum?) in their triangle offense.

With teammates involved, Bryant is harder to key on, making the game child’s play for him compared to the burden he had to carry for three seasons.

Nevertheless, the Nuggets didn’t get here by accident.

If Anthony and Iverson get help from J.R. Smith (16 points a game after the All-Star break, making 41% of his three-pointers), Anthony Carter (29% on threes before the break, 40% after) and hot-and-cold Linas Kleiza (41% on threes in December, 30% in April), this can still be the last thing the Lakers want, a real series.

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mark.heisler@latimes.com

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

First look: Lakers vs. Nuggets

First-round matchup: No. 1 Lakers vs. No. 8 Denver Nuggets.

Records: Lakers 57-25, Nuggets, 50-32.

Season series: The Lakers swept the three games, winning by an average of 16.3 points.

Key matchup: Kobe Bryant versus Allen Iverson. Two of the game’s most gifted offensive players probably won’t be matched up for most of the series, although Bryant probably will guard Iverson during key stretches. Iverson scored a season-high 51 points when the Lakers outlasted Denver, 111-107, on Dec. 5.

Keys to the series: The Nuggets have been in a playoff drive for weeks, exerting a lot of energy just to reach the postseason. How much will that, plus Carmelo Anthony’s recent DUI arrest, hurt the team? The Nuggets’ defense largely consists of Marcus Camby, the NBA’s reigning defensive player of the year, and four others who show faint interest in stopping their opposing player. The Nuggets rank second in the league in points scored and points given up. The Lakers swept the series against the Nuggets and that was before their trade for Pau Gasol.

-- Jonathan Abrams