May 26th, 2009 
Stephen Rhodes 
Posted in 
You can tell a good playoff team by the type of bench it has. The Denver Nuggets had a decent bench before the playoffs while the Los Angeles Lakers’ bench was average, at best. Nonetheless, both teams locked up at the Pepsi Center in the Western Conference finals Monday night; while neither team shot especially well, the Nuggets’ bench proved to make the difference as seven players scored in double-digits. The end result? Denver easily disposed of Los Angeles 120-101 to tie the series at 2 games apiece.
To illustrate how dominant Denver was for the entire 48 minutes, they outperformed Los Angeles in every meaningful category (rebounds 58-40, assists 23-19 and shooting percentage 44.2%-41.5%) while turning the ball over only 6 times. In addition, the Nuggets outscored the Lakers in every quarter. So basically, the game wasn’t really as close as the final score indicated.
Denver’s high scoring honors went to Chauncey Billups and J.R. Smith; Billups also grabbed 3 rebounds, dished out 3 assists along with a steal and block while Smith hit four 3-pointers, grabbed 2 boards, dished out 4 assists along with 2 steals; Carmelo Anthony added 15 with 3 rebounds, 5 assists and a steal. Nene and Kenyon Martin secured a double-double each – with Nene scoring 14 with 13 rebounds while Martin chipped in 13 with 15 boards.
Los Angeles was led by Kobe Bryant with 34 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists and a steal while Pau Gasol added 21 with 10 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 blocks; Andrew Bynum poured in 14 with 5 rebounds and a block. Denver looks to edge ahead in this best-of-7 series on Wednesday night when they take on Los Angeles at Staples Center.
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