After Hours

You are delusional if you believe the Lakers will repeat as NBA champs. Laker fans swear the playoffs will provide some magic tonic for Kobe Bryant and company, but they’ll wind up cussing and fussing in anger as they watch Shaq and LeBron sip the sweet taste of champagne. Back-to-back? It ain’t happening.

The Lakers will smack the Thunder around though, but their prospects after that will become seriously dicey.

Injuries, their ineffectiveness of defending speedy point guards and an unproductive bench are the major reasons they will fail. Add to that the unknown factor of how Andrew Bynum, who is expected to return Sunday after missing the last 13 games of the regular season with an Achilles’ strain, will respond it too much to bear. Last season, the Lakers prevailed without much of a contribution from Bynum, but this time they won’t be as fortunate.

They are too banged up to complete a title run in this grueling stretch. Bryant, who has enough ailments to sideline 3 players, won’t be in championship form, with a barking knee and an index finger on his shooting hand contributing to their downfall.

The bench though will be what really sinks them. It has been horrible for much of the season and that won’t change much during the playoffs. Much of that is due to one of the key reserves from last summer’s run, Shannon Brown, having a torn tendon in his shooting hand, is clearly not the same player right now. He lacks confidence in his outside shot, which seriously limits his overall effectiveness.

Ron Artest? Defensively, he’s been great, but offensively he’s been inconsistent all season. And we can’t imagine him becoming Trevor Ariza anytime soon. We might be wrong about some of what transpires in the West, but we can promise lightening won’t strike twice in a bottle for the Purple and Gold.

Our predictions:

West

Lakers vs. Thunder: Lakers in 5

Mavericks vs. Spurs: Mavericks in 7

Nuggets vs. Jazz: Nuggets in 6

Suns vs. Blazers: Suns in 5

East

Cavs vs. Bulls: Cavs in 4

Magic vs. Bobcats: Magic in 5

Hawks vs. Bucks: Hawks in 5

Celtics vs. Heat: Celtics in 7

West semifinals

Lakers vs. Nuggets: Nuggets in 6

Mavs vs. Suns: Mavs in 6

East semifinals

Cavs vs. Celtics: Cavs in 6

Magic vs. Hawks: Magic in 7

West finals

Nuggets vs. Mavs: Nuggets in 7

East finals

Cavs vs. Magic: Cavs in 7

NBA Finals

Cavs vs. Nuggets: Cavs in 6

Read more of Forrest Lee at Blak4rest.com.

For all of their talk about being more physical with the Nuggets, the Lakers got pushed around again in the first half. Turnovers, bad shooting and foul trouble to Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum didn't help either. These two are always expected to give the Lakers an advantage inside against the smaller Nuggets, but they sat with long faces from the bench.

The Nuggets, who like to talk a good game too, were running the same game they had in their two previous lopsided victories over the Lakers. Oh, was it working well too. They led almost the entire first half, built double-digit leads and controlled the tempo. Maybe George Karl was right, I started thinking. Maybe Denver did indeed have L.A.’s number.

But the Lakers turned up the pressure in the third quarter, forcing Denver into seven turnovers and some cold shooting. You could tell the Nuggets’ bravado wasn’t as bold, looking as wide-eyed as a 6-year-old on the first day of school instead of their confident strut in the first half. A nine-point Nuggets' halftime lead quickly evaporated, and by the time the fourth quarter rolled around, Denver seemed to be running out of steam.

"They slowed our offense down," Karl to the Associated Press. "They picked up the pressure on us in the second half and we didn't have the perseverance to pass the ball or penetrate before the pressure came."

But they made a game of it before falling, the end coming when Carmelo Anthony got whistled for an offensive foul, his sixth, a questionable one at a critical time and one that wasn't called all day.

Still, the Nuggets have to be pleased about a few things. One, they forced Kobe into his roughest day of the season. He managed just 14 points on 3 of 17 shooting (he was 1 of 10 at one point), but he dished out 12 assists when he figured out he couldn’t hit the side of a barn.

Thankfully, for him and the Lakers, Ron Artest, Lamar Odom and Gasol picked up the slack. Artest had 17 points, but more importantly, made 6 steals and harassed Anthony into a 7 of 19 shooting outing and 8 turnovers before he fouled out with 21 points. Odom finished with 20 points, 9 in the fourth quarter, 12 rebounds and 4 steals. He and Artest also set the tone on the physicality issue when it counted most.

Still, the Nuggets have won 2 of 3 from the defending champs. And they'll be amped to make it 3 of 4 when the two teams meet again April 8 in Denver. Who knows, that might set the tone for the playoffs because these two are surely headed for a classic Western Conference shootout.

Read more of Forrest Lee at Blak4rest.com.