Lakers 122 - Nuggets 107 * Lakers defend home court as Kobe Bryant gets hot and scores 49 points

The Denver Nuggets were right on the Los Angeles Lakers heels when Kobe Bryant finally said that enough was enough and heated things up. Kobe had 19 points in a span of 4:19 in the fourth quarter as the Lakers took a commanding 2-0 series lead against the Denver Nuggets with a 122-107 victory at Staples Center. The Denver Nuggets, who are a really good home team will try to even the series out with game 3 on Saturday and game 4 on Monday in Denver. Kobe Bryant finished the game with 49 points and 10 assist. Allen Iverson was impressed and said that the Nuggets could have probably put 10 people on the court and they still could not have stopped Bryant. Allen Iverson had a good game himself, getting 31 points and 6 assist in the contest. The Lakers led 89-79 entering the fourth quarter. The Nuggets drew within five points three times before a three-point play by Bryant with 6:41 remaining made it 101-93, that was only the beginning. Two free throws by Bryant in a span of two seconds after technical fouls against J.R. Smith and Iverson made it 105-94 with 5:37 left, and Bryant added a 3-pointer 18 seconds later to extend the Los Angeles lead to 14 and the game was basically over. Bryant kept it going before his hot spell ended with 2:22 left when he made a three-point play, giving the Lakers a 120-101 lead. He came out for good 20 seconds later to a loud ovation and chants of "MVP, MVP'' from the capacity crowd of 18,997 at Staples Center. Cobe Karl came in to replace Kobe as his father was coaching Denver, it was the first time ever in history that a father has been coaching a game with his son on an opposing team. Kenyon Martin continued to do some trash talking to Kobe Bryant in the game but Lamar Odom pointed out that Bryant is one of those players that you better think twice about before trash talking. "He can hit shots on anybody, on a number of defenders anywhere on the floor" Odom said. Odom spent much of the night in foul trouble and scored only 4 points in the game. Bryant's main help tonight came from Pau Gasol who had 18 points and 10 rebounds. Luke Walton also had 18 points off of the bench. Carmelo Anthony scored 23 points for the Nuggets, Smith had 21 points and Marcus Camby had 17 rebounds to go along with 4 blocked shots. Seems it don't matter what this team does, they simply can not beat the Lakers. Besides Allen Iverson, the rest of the team seems to get no respect from anyone.