Lakers-Nuggets Game Two, First Half: Where A Late Alarm Clock Happens

One of the reasons why I haven't been a big believer in this Nugget team -- I picked the Bugs to beat them in the first round, and thought the Mavs would last longer, but still lose, in the second -- is that I just couldn't shake the idea that they were, well, the Nuggets. For the first time in the playoffs tonight, that was correct. And then it wasn't. The first quarter shows the Nuggets looking more like their team of old -- bad body language, technical fouls, defensive lapses on their own glass and the sense that they weren't really into it. The Lakers also got some pretty bad calls to go their way, and Chauncy Billups continued his bizarre and unexpected trouble at the free throw line. A few threes from bench players made the game closer than it looked, and a Sasha Vujacic miss in transition off a buzzer turnover kept it from seeming worse... but if the vibe of this game doesn't change and soon, the Lakers will win by 20 or more, especially if Carmelo Anthon...