L.A. LAKERS AT DENVER 8:30 p.m., ALT and TNT
Spotlight on Andrew Bynum: The 7-footer said before Game 5 of the series on Tuesday that closing out the Nuggets would be easy as long as the Lakers played hard from the start. Well, the Lakers didn’t do that. And the Nuggets, who won 102-99, used his words as motivation. Now the Lakers are back in Denver for Game 6. Nuggets point guard Ty Lawson wants Bynum to keep talking. “Oh, yeah, we need more things to put on the bulletin board, things to motivate us,” Lawson said. “Because that definitely did help out.”
THREE POINTERS
1. Can Arron Afflalo build on his Game 5 performance? It has been a strange playoff series for Afflalo, the Nuggets’ starting shooting guard. He had four consecutive subpar games but scored a career playoff-high 19 points Tuesday in Los Angeles. Is that a sign of things to come? If Afflalo can continue to find his shot — he was 8-of-19 in Game 5 — the Nuggets will be tougher for the Lakers to beat.
2. Can the Denver big men outplay the L.A. bigs again? JaVale McGee and Kenneth Faried combined to score 31 points against the Lakers in Game 5. They hit 14-of-17 shots, grabbed 23 rebounds and blocked two shots. L.A. big men Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol combined for 25 points. They made 9-of-19 shots, grabbed 21 rebounds and blocked four shots. Advantage: Nuggets. If Faried and McGee play that well in Game 6 tonight, the Nuggets will have a great chance to go back to the Staples Center in Los Angeles for Game 7.
3. Is Andre Miller for real? Miller has never advanced out of the first round of the playoffs in his long NBA career. He’s determined to change that, based on the way he played in Game 5. Ty Lawson’s backup scored a team-high 24 points in 28 minutes. He made 8-of-11 shots, including two of the Nuggets’ three 3-pointers. He had eight assists and committed only one turnover. In the series, the Utah product is averaging 12.8 points and 6.4 assists off the bench.
Christopher Dempsey, The Denver Post
