Believe it, Lakers will face stiffer competition

A review of Lakers playoff game No. 3 -- 13 wins to go.

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DENVER -- Twenty-five years ago to this very Saturday, I’m a reporter here covering the Broncos’ draft, standing in the food line because I was told that’s what reporters do, when a secretary tells assistant coach Fran Polsfoot, “I’ve got Jack Elway on the telephone.”

Right away I turn to Polsfoot to ask if the Broncos are trying to trade for Elway, who has been drafted by Baltimore hours earlier but who makes it clear he will not play for the Colts.

“Nah,” Polsfoot says, “Jack and I were fraternity brothers and it’s nothing.”

I never give it another thought -- until six days later when the Broncos announce they have acquired Elway in a trade.

And people wonder why I don’t believe most of the things coaches and athletes have to say.

Or baseball owners, who say they are going to spend $500 million so everyone can come to the ballpark during the off-season because it looks like there’s no reason to be going during the season anymore.

How about spending $440 million on greenery and a museum, and $60 million on a third baseman?

I DIGRESS, I know, but it’s the third quarter, the game already out of hand and I’ve got another hour or so to kill before the Lakers have officially demolished the Nuggets.

I can’t wait to tell Tex Winter all about it. Phil Jackson is sitting on the Lakers bench in the chair they use to go easy on his back, which places him more than a head taller than anyone else sitting there today. Winter gets the seat behind him, missing a great Lakers team performance.

As for the straight scoop, of course I don’t expect to get that from anyone after the game.

The other night, for example, Lamar Odom is talking about the Nuggets, I’m predicting sweep and he gets very serious and says he thinks the series will go seven games. And people wonder why I laugh when they say some of the things they say.

“I weigh 240 pounds,” the Dodgers’ Tubbo says, and I laugh every time I think about that, but then I digress once again.

Jackson tells his team at halftime that although Denver is just horrible shooting the ball, “they are not going to shoot like this the whole game.” The Nuggets shoot even worse in the second half, and it’s comforting to know a coach has no problem misleading his players as well as the media.

Or how about Luke Walton, who says Saturday, “Everyone was saying this series was over at 2-0, but we came in here knowing this would be the toughest game of the series.”

And what is it, Lakers by 40 or 50?

I knew it was over when the Nuggets brought out the saxophonist to play the national anthem. It never fails to kill the mood. They ask everyone on the overhead scoreboard to “make noise,” pass out white T-shirts to everyone in the building that read, “Can you feel it,” and then bring out the sax.

EVERYONE LIES. The Nuggets not only have a Jack Nicholson imitator sitting in the front row, but as part of introductions, they show highlights on the scoreboard, the Nuggets just tearing up the Lakers in play after play -- like they are up 2-0. Yeah, that fooled the crowd.

Then some guy comes on the P.A. and tells the paying customers, “It’s going to take each and every one of you today,” like there’s no way the five guys Denver puts on the court can do it by themselves.

OK, so he has a point.

“This is our house,” the guy on the P.A. screams as they get ready for the tip, and why do they say that? It’s an arena, and think about it, would you want your house smelling like a gymnasium with spilled beer and popcorn everywhere?

Up on the scoreboard, it reads, “No one sits until the Nuggets score.” Good thing it doesn’t read, “No one sits until Marcus Camby scores,” because they’d still be standing.

The day begins in this refrigerator with snowflakes falling, the Avalanche playing in Detroit in the second round of the NHL playoffs, the Broncos getting ready to make a pick, the Rockies coming off a World Series appearance last year and the Nuggets in the playoffs.

What a miserable place. The Avalanche gets spanked, the Nuggets get drilled, the Rockies rank right there in the standings with the Dodgers and the Broncos draft a Boise State offensive tackle. I’m sure his mother is thrilled.

As bad as these folks have it, though, at least their favorite football team isn’t UCLA.

The Lakers, meanwhile, are so good now they are getting more than 23 points a game between Vladimir Radmanovic and Luke Walton to go along with whatever Pau Gasol, Kobe Bryant and Lamar Odom contribute.

OK, so that’s a little deceiving, too. Radmanovic is nothing special, but Walton is, aggressive from the first moment he steps on the court in the playoff opener, and never pulling back.

It’s almost like someone told him this would be a nice time to start earning that six-year, $30-million contract the Lakers gave him before the season.

“When I was playing not to the level that I wanted to play,” Walton says, which is another way of saying he could never put two good games together, “that thought came into my head.

“There were a ton of things I was thinking about, my brothers, my dad, everyone was giving me advice. It’s all about confidence. There were times when I didn’t even want to shoot. But I decided to just put all that behind me, and now things seem to be working out nicely.”

Walton is averaging 16.3 points and five assists a game in the playoffs. One more win, and then he’ll have to prove it wasn’t just the poor, defenseless Nuggets who have made him look so good.

But then the same could be said about the Lakers, three easy wins into the playoffs, the Nuggets playing like a UCLA team in the Final Four under Ben Howland, and no one knowing for sure just how good these Lakers might be against a really good team.

Anyone who tells you they do know, I wouldn’t believe them.

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T.J. Simers can be reached at t.j.simers@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Simers, go to latimes.com/simers.