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(Denver-CO) I have a bad feeling, Nuggets Nation. It's Friday the 13th and the Lakers are coming to town tonight. And after watching them whoop up on the Suns last night, the Nuggets had better hope Bynum and Kobe are tired. The duo are occupying the top two points in the paint numbers in the NBA so far (Bynum at 17ppg and Kobe at 16ppg) and that’s just where the Nuggets are most vulnerable.
The Lakers come into tonight’s game with a six-game winning streak and on the tail end of back-to-back games, but L.A. will also be without Pau Gasol, who is still ailing from a strained hamstring. However, the player that scares me the most is Lamar Odom.
Admittedly, I am a huge Lamar Odom fan. I fell in love with his game when he was at the University of Rhode Island and continued to enjoy his unique skill set in his stint with the Clippers. I mean, here’s a guy who is grabbing more rebounds for the Lakers than anyone on the Nuggets and dishing nearly as many assists as Chauncey Billups while still putting up a double-digit scoring average playing, literally, all five spots on the floor. Not to mention he was ranked second in the NBA when it came to overall +/- last season! I digress, but I had nightmares all last night dreaming about Odom absolutely carving up the Nuggets while Kloe Kardashian sits courtside heckling me until I awoke in a cold sweat.
For the Nuggets to win tonight there has to be three stars come into alignment. The first is Carmelo Anthony shooting a decent percentage. I’m thinking somewhere in the 43-47% range would get it done and that’s not to say ‘Melo needs to score 35+ points either. In fact, it would be better for the Nuggets for some other folks to take some of the scoring burden off of ‘Melo and for Anthony to finish out a few extra assists and boards.
From there, I would really like to see Chauncey thread the needle to the tune of about a dozen assists. Billups has only cracked double digit assists once this year (against Memphis) with his second best mark being an uncharacteristically low seven dimes. Mr. Big Shot is better than that and the Nuggets would benefit greatly from him getting others into the fold.
Lastly, the Nuggets need a big game offensively from someone not named Carmelo. We all know J.R. Smith is capable of this, but a 20+ point outing from Nene, Kenyon, or even Ty Lawson would give Denver a huge boost from the stagnant puddle of offense we’ve seen Denver wallow in three out of the last four games.
With all that laid out, here are the two things (besides Lamar Odom and Kloe Kardashian) that scare the hell out of me. The Lakers are an elite rebounding team. They come into tonight’s game averaging the leagues sixth best clip cleaning the boards and are equally good on either side of the glass. Denver is going to have its hands full with the size of Andrew Bynum, who is not ranked overall due to not having played enough games but is pulling the NBA's fourth best average of 11.3rpg.
The second is Kobe Byrant. The Black Mamba is quietly leading the league in scoring at 33ppg while shooting 50% from the field. Additionally, ever since the ball player formerly known as J.R. called him out to which Kobe replied, “You shake a tree, a leopard’s going to fall out.” Bryant has absolutely torched the Nuggets. Fans in Denver surely remember these statistical numbers: 36.7 points, 6.7 assists, and 6.3 rebounds.
The Nuggets certainly have their work cut out for them, but if there is a team in this league that L.A. should be aware of it's Denver. Let's hope the Nuggets bring that same chip on their shoulder that they showed up with down in San Diego during the preseason and this game serves as a spark for the firestorm Denver needs to burn the Lakers in the long haul.
Go Nuggets! 
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