Bryant is their meal ticket

DENVER -- The Lakers are expecting the Denver Nuggets to pack their largest punch so far, an appropriate time for Kobe Bryant to peer into the pressure of trying to be king of the ring.

The Lakers have cornered the Nuggets by taking a 2-0 lead in a best-of-seven series that shifts today to Denver, where the Nuggets and their fans breathlessly await.

The Lakers will also breathe rapidly at first -- altitude, of course -- but then they’ll go after a victory that would provide a chance to seriously study who’s doing what to whom in that Houston-Utah series, seeing as how an NBA team has never won a series after trailing 3-0.

It would also mean another step for Bryant in his escalating quest to win a fourth championship. The 10-time All-Star continued to express his feelings in big-picture terms, following up some positive thoughts earlier this week with the revelation that he was “hungrier” for a championship now than he was as a fresh-faced 21-year-old in 2000.

“The first one I was so young, plus I was sharing that pressure with somebody else,” Bryant said, referring to Shaquille O’Neal. “Me and Diesel both had the pressure on us to kind of get it done, he more so than I. Now the pressure’s squarely on my shoulders to try and bring another championship here. It’s something that I accept. I think I’m a little hungrier now than I was the first time.”

Can he handle the hunger?

“It comes with the territory. You can’t be Superman and not deal with the pressure of dropping somebody when you go to rescue them,” Bryant said.

Continuing the metaphor, the Nuggets must be the first-round villains, presumably more comfortable at home than they were at Staples Center. The Nuggets were 33-8 at Pepsi Center this season, fourth-best home record in the Western Conference.

The Lakers managed to survive Allen Iverson’s 51-point splurge in a 111-107 victory here in December, but the stakes are abundantly higher now.

The Lakers are expecting the Nuggets to speed up the game by adding more layups, lob dunks and three-point shots to an already frenetic offense.

They’re also preparing for more contact, or “duress,” as Coach Phil Jackson politely called it.

Denver has accrued six technical fouls in two games, expanding upon the league-leading 54 it collected during the regular season.

“I think they’re an emotional bunch,” said Bryant, who has had words with Kenyon Martin and J.R. Smith so far this series. “What we have to understand is that could work against us, particularly in Game 3, because once they get the crowd behind them and they gain momentum, their emotion all of a sudden now becomes their biggest strength. What we have to try to do is keep it quiet as much as we possibly can.”

Martin wasn’t very quiet Friday when asked what he thought of Bryant, who used the trash-talking as a motivational thrust on the way to a 49-point, 10-assist Game 2 performance that was arguably the most well-rounded of his playoff career.

“People talk trash, it happens,” said Martin, who sprinkled a few unprintable words into the mix.

“If we start up again in Game 3, then we’ll revisit it, but I want to win a basketball game. I’m not worried about whether” Bryant was upset. “They did what they had to do at home, so it’s our time to win at home, bottom line.”

The Lakers are also on notice after five teams with 2-0 series leads lost Game 3.

Still, they believe they can win away from Staples Center.

“We’ve had some big games on the road -- Utah, Dallas, Denver, some other places that are tough to play,” Bryant said. “I think it helps because we understand how to get it done.”

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Jackson was coy when asked if he was also hungrier to win a championship now than earlier in his career.

“I haven’t had breakfast since 8:30. I’m very hungry right now. It’s past my lunch time. So, yes, I am hungry,” he said.

When Jackson returned to the Lakers almost three years ago, he said it would be a story of “reconciliation, redemption, of reuniting.”

So he was asked again if he wasn’t hungry to break the nine-championship tie he holds with Boston Celtics legend Red Auerbach.

“I’ll see you guys later,” Jackson said as he smiled, turned and walked away from reporters.

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Ronny Turiaf said he lost 11 pounds while battling tonsillitis, but he practiced Friday and could play tonight. . . . Bryant knows the Denver crowd will be raucous but said he had “never seen a chant block a jump shot.” . . . In a sport where scoreboard-watching is rarely acknowledged, the Lakers have openly admitted checking out other playoff series in the West. “This is the time where the TV doesn’t turn off,” Odom said.

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Times staff writer Mark Heisler contributed to this report.

mike.bresnahan@latimes.com