Picture Gallery (LAT)

May 4 - Denver. After never trailing in their two wins in Los Angeles, the Lakers had very uninspired night in which they allowed the Nuggets to run over them with 28-2 run spanning the first and second periods. They could never fully recover and lost 99-84 in game 3.

When that fatidic run ended the Nuggets were up by 24, 38-14. By then Ty Lawson had scored 13 of his 25 points, most of them running at a speed no Laker could match.

The Lakers reacted and slowly closed the gap to single digits in the third quarter but in the fourth they were too erratic and couldn't figure it out how to finally catch up Denver despite getting as close as 81-88 with two minutes to go.

Kobe Bryant led the Lakers with 22 points but he needed 23 shots to get them while Andrew Bynum, a big contributor so far in these series, had a first half to forget. In the second half he showed some spark and finished with 18 points and 12 rebounds but it was too late. The Lakers had proved they have a clear matchup advantage in size and talent in the paint with Bynum and Pau Gasol but in this game they were dominated by JaVale McGee who had 16 points and 15 rebounds and 4 blocks and the very undersized Kenneth Faried who had 12 points and grabbed 15 rebounds.

Game 4 is Sunday and the Lakers still won't count with Metta World Peace who is suspended for 3 more games.