The Nuggets end the Lakers' winning steak

The Nuggets end the Lakers' winning steak

After nine victories in a row the defending champions finally lost a game and consequently their chances to clinch No.1 in the West, as the Spurs took advantage of their setback to extend their lead to 2 games ahead of them.

After the All-Star week the Los Angeles Lakers came decided to clinch the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference, position in which they had finished the last two seasons and took them straight to the championship ring in both occasions. They hit the pedal to the metal and put together an impressive 17-1 record, which placed themselves at just 1 games away from the first place occupied by the San Antonio Spurs; a squad that while the Lakers were enjoying of a boost of nine wins in a row, was struggling to put an end to their six loss steak.

With the premise of finishing in first place No. 2 Lakers received No. 4 Denver Nuggets at the Staples Centers, team that was also going through a good moment with five consecutive wins and wasn't resenting Carmelo Anthony's exit to the New York Knicks. While Anthony struggled in New York with a month of March to forget (7-11), the Nuggets had a mark of 15-4 in the post Melo era, and where just one win away from clinching their eight straight playoff berth, which they were decided to achieve by stunning the defending champions at home.

Focused to clinch that playoff berth and secure No. 4 in the conference, the Nuggets stepped in the Staples Center for the third game of the 2010-11 NBA regular season series against the Lakers, which until then reported a win each.

After two quarters things were not going the right track for Denver that found themselves down in the score 40-47. This forced them to come from behind in the second half if they wanted to achieve their goal.

In the second half the Nuggets were going to overcome that seven-point difference with a little of assistance from a series of misfortunate events for the Lakers that were going to end the game without two of their key players: Paul Gasol and Andrew Bynum. Both of them accused knee problems that forced them to abandon the game in the third and fourth quarter respectively.

Those two casualties added to 18 turnovers and a horrible game from the three-point range, where only four out of 18 three pointers were good, made the Lakers vulnerable and the Nuggets didn't miss the chance to knock them out with a 95-90 win.

Guided by Danilo Gallinari's 22 points and Kenyon Martin's 18 Denver was able to stun the Lakers at home and clinch the so desired playoff berth.

But this victory represents more than that, as Nugget Wilson Chandler (7 points and 3 assists) explained: "as a young team it helps us build confidence and trust each other."

The Lakers had in Kobe Bryant their top scorer as usual. He contributed with 28 points but there wasn't much more he could do to prevent this setback. Outscored by 12 points in the second half, Kobe and his teammates watched how their nine-win streak came to an end.

With the 2011 Playoffs around the corner the Lakers know that there is no time to look back, and that they need to make the best of the last six games of the season, which includes a showdown against No. 1 San Antonio on April 12.

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