Andrew Bynum drops 30 points as Los Angeles Lakers edge out Denver Nuggets 103-97 - NBA Recap
On Friday night at the Staples Center, Los Angeles, CA, the Los Angeles Lakers continued to win in the absence of their All Star Kobe Bryant, who has missed 4 games due to a bruised shin. Lakers defeated the Denver Nuggets 103-97
tonight and the win also helped the Lakers in securing a playoff berth.
Lakers have now won 3 of 4 games in Bryant`s absence. However Bryant was not the only noticeable personality missing for the Lakers as they went into the game without their head coach, Mike Brown who had to leave even before the
game had started due to a family emergency.
Andrew Bynum led the scoring for the Lakers as he finished the night with 30 points. He also hauled down 8 rebounds and blocked three shots. Matt Barnes notched up a double-double, coming off the bench to score a season high of
24 points which included 4 for 4 three point shooting while also grabbing 10 rebounds.
Barnes was accompanied in double-double figures by team mate, Pau Gasol who ended the game with 14 points and 10 rebounds. Metta World Peace also contributed 14 points and 8 boards.
Andre Miller came off the bench to be the leading scorer for Denver with 20 points. Al Harrington and JaVale McGee also came off the bench to score 18 and 14 points respectively. McGee also had 10 rebounds in the game. Arron Afflalo
was the only starter scoring in double figures for the Nuggets. He finished the game with 18 points. The remaining four starters for the Nuggets failed to score more than 9 points individually and combined together to score only 25 points in the game.
Denver opened their account in the game with Kenneth Faried getting an offensive rebound and then scoring on a reverse layup. It took almost one and a half minute for the Lakers to open their account which they finally did with
World Peace sinking a three pointer.
In the next several minutes, Nuggets found themselves ahead again as Gallinari made two free throws to make score 8-7 in Denver`s favour. From that point on till the 6:34 mark in the first, Lakers scored 8 unanswered points to
make the scores 15-8 in their favour. Lakers went on to extend their advantage to 11 by the end of the opening period.
Lakers remained ahead in the contest for most part of the second quarter and were leading 48-40 with 3:14 to go in the half. In about the next 2 minutes, Nuggets scored 6 quick points to chip the lead down to only 2. On their very
next trip to the offence, Barnes hit a three to make it a 2 possession game. Lakers closed out the half 6 points ahead of the visitors, 54-48.
In the second half, the same pattern was followed, with the Nuggets trying to make a comeback and the Lakers trying to hold off their charge. However the Lakers, with the more experience to their advantage, were able to hold off
the Nuggs.
They went on to lead by as much as 12, 70-58, at one point in third. The lead remained in double figures till the final second of the third quarter, when Harrington hit a three pointer to cut the lead to 8, 71-79.
At the start of the final quarter, the Lakers were able to extend their advantage back to 12 points with 9:25 remaining till the final buzzer. However, the Nuggets were not going out that easy as they rallied to chip the lead back
down to only one point, 90-91, as they scored 15 while holding the Lakers to only 4.
However the Lakers responded back with a run of their own as they scored 8 quick points, 6 from Barnes and 2 from Sessions to take the lead 99-90 with 57.3 seconds remaining. The Lakers were able to hold off any further sparks
from the Nuggets as they took this one with a margin of 6 points.
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