The Starting Lineup: Nuggets Fail To Take Advantage Of Opportunities, Lose To Lakers

My opinion to this point has been that the Denver Nuggets ARE capable of making a deep playoff run without that one guy to take control down the stretch.  I feel this way not so much because of anything the Nuggets are doing, but because the West no longer has that group of teams all led by superstars that stand out above the rest.  While I still believe that this is true, last night’s 89-93 loss to the Lakers certainly didn’t build my confidence.  No, they didn’t choke away a huge lead, or even choke away a small one… they never really even had a lead.  They simply failed to take advantage of an unreal amount of opportunities presented to them by the Lakers, who really didn’t play very well.  Throw in the extra chances the officials gave them and the fact that they ultimately weren’t able to shave a single point off of that four-point lead the Lakers held entering the final quarter just becomes kind of pathetic. Why were they so unable t...