Lakers to see how they run

By Mike Bresnahan

April 17, 2008 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

The Lakers won’t be playing Phoenix in the first round, for once, though the difference might not be that palpable.

The Denver Nuggets are a less polished version of the Suns, pushing the pace at will, sometimes to their own detriment, while having the built-in advantage of trying to outlast opponents in the wispy Denver environment.

Don’t tell the Lakers, but the Nuggets actually scored more points than the Suns this season, finishing second in the league at 110.7 points a game.

Then again, don’t tell the Nuggets, but the Lakers swept them in the season series, winning their three games by an average of 16.3 points.

Game 1 in the best-of-seven series is Sunday at noon at Staples Center.

The Nuggets (50-32), who were locked into the eighth seeding when Dallas defeated New Orleans on Wednesday night, have had this little problem of getting out of the first round, losing in five games each of the last four seasons, and the Lakers (57-25) have the added edge of cleaning up against the Nuggets this season, but Lakers Coach Phil Jackson still sounded the caution bell.

“I’m not taking any solace in the fact that we had a 3-0 record against them during the regular season,” Jackson said. “We can’t take anything from what happened in those games and use it even in present-day terms.”

He might be right.

The teams haven’t played since Jan. 21, a lifetime in an NBA season, particularly one such as this. The last time they met, Andrew Bynum had been sidelined for a week, Pau Gasol was still 11 days from saving the Lakers’ season, and Carmelo Anthony left midway through the second quarter because of a sprained ankle. For the record, the Lakers won, 116-99.

But they had barely sewn up the top seeding in the Western Conference on Tuesday before Jackson brought up Allen Iverson’s 51-point outburst in the Lakers’ 111-107 victory in Denver on Dec. 5.

“Obviously, you’ve got an offensive team in Denver, a free-wheeling team,” he said.

There’s always the other side of the coin, though, for those teams that run and run. They often forget to defend and defend.

The Nuggets gave up 107 points a game, second-worst in the league, and didn’t exactly rush to the finish line, winning five of their last nine.

The Lakers, meanwhile, went 8-1 to conclude the regular season, their lone loss coming in Portland, where they would probably lose even if they suited up an All-Star team.

“It’s all about momentum,” Kobe Bryant said. “You want to be playing your best basketball going into the playoffs, and we feel like we’re doing that. We ended the season exactly the way we wanted to.”

Or, as Sacramento Coach Reggie Theus said after the Lakers clinched the top spot with a 124-101 pasting of the Kings: “They have the potential in that locker room to do it all.”

First, they’re going to get a little rest.

Jackson told the players to stay home Wednesday and planned to bring them in today only for a video session. They won’t begin practicing until Friday, as per Jackson’s wishes.

“The biggest concern, I would say, is injuries, the health of players, that they have live legs, that they haven’t been worn out by this race to finish first,” he said. “Fortunately, we’ve been at home, and that’s even better. Double fortunate for us is that we’ve had games that have been open-ended affairs at the end in the last two games in which we’ve been able to play our bench.”

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Bryant avoided a one-game suspension by not picking up a technical foul in the Lakers’ last 10 games, a course on which Jackson would like Bryant to stay.

“I think it bodes well for him to maintain his composure,” Jackson said. “Going to bat for his teammates right now, I don’t think that’s going to be necessary. I think we have a team identity and a knowledgeable reference point that referees can draw from as to how our players play and what they do.”

Bryant’s regular-season slate of 15 technical fouls now resets at zero for the playoffs, where players are allowed six technical fouls before being suspended for a game after their seventh technical.

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The father-son plot might have to wait a few days.

Coby Karl is on loan to the D-Fenders, the Lakers’ minor league affiliate, until the Development League playoffs are over, putting a temporary halt to Karl’s suiting up against a Nuggets team coached by his father, George.

The D-Fenders play a one-game semifinal Friday in Idaho. If successful, they would play in a best-of-three championship next week.

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The Lakers haven’t faced the Nuggets in the playoffs since a first-round series in 1987. The Lakers won, 3-0, on the way to winning the NBA championship.

mike.bresnahan@latimes.com

First round

Matchups for the first round of the NBA playoffs. The series begin Saturday and Sunday and are best of seven:

WESTERN CONFERNCE

NO. 1 LAKERS (57-25) VS.

NO. 8 DENVER (50-32)

Lakers won season series, 3-0

Game 1 at Staples Center

Sunday, noon

NO. 2 NEW ORLEANS (56-26) VS.

NO. 7 DALLAS (51-31)

Season series tied, 2-2