Gasol Proves Lakers Are a One-Man Band No More

It has been a long time since Kobe Bryant’s summer of fear and loathing, in which he called Jerry Buss, the Los Angeles Lakers’ owner, an idiot; mocked the acumen of Mitch Kupchak, the team’s general manager; ripped his teammate Andrew Bynum in a parking lot video; and kept the news cycle spinning with demands that he be traded, sprinkled with occasional backpedaling, apparently to make sure everyone was listening.

As if to underscore how much time has passed since then, the Los Angeles Lakers did something Sunday that had been heretofore unimaginable in the post-Shaquille O’Neal era: They won a playoff game without Bryant in the starring role.

Los Angeles’s 128-114 victory against the Denver Nuggets in the opening game of their Western Conference first-round playoff series showed that dispatching the Lakers, the top-seeded team in the conference, will not be as easy as stopping Bryant, their, and maybe the league’s, most valuable player.

Bryant did manage 32 points, but he missed 9 of his first 10 shots, was plagued by foul trouble, and did most of his damage in the final quarter as the Lakers nursed a double-digit lead. He had 18 points in the fourth, including 9 points (on 10 shots) from the free-throw line.

Asked if the Lakers might have won a playoff game like this in recent seasons, Bryant grinned.

“We upgraded a couple of key positions,” he said, leaving the in-case-you-haven’t-heard stuff unsaid.

Instead of four players standing around waiting for Bryant to rescue the team, the Lakers, with the addition of Pau Gasol, have been transformed offensively.

On Sunday, they were at their finest with crisp, quick passing against a Denver defense attuned to Bryant’s whereabouts on the floor.

The series of passes often ended with the ball in the hands of Gasol, who scored 36 points (his career playoff high), many of them on dunks, and had 16 rebounds and 8 assists, leading Los Angeles in all three categories.

“They block shots and they run out and they do an extremely good job at doing that because it creates easy baskets for them,” Lakers Coach Phil Jackson said of the Denver defense, which was 29th in the league in points allowed.

“But if you’re patient and you work the ball, you can change sides of the floor, you can find a way to get the ball inside and get easy baskets, and with a guy like Pau, as long as he is, it makes it even easier.”

The Lakers moved the ball so well that their starting frontcourt — Gasol, Lamar Odom (six) and Vladimir Radmanovic (six) — led them in assists. Another forward, Luke Walton, had five assists off the bench.

Denver Coach George Karl said it was the team defense that was lacking, not the play of center Marcus Camby, the N.B.A.’s defensive player of the year last season. He often left Gasol on the weakside to help on the strong side.

“I think Coby Karl could have scored the baskets,” Karl said, referring to his son, a rookie for the Lakers who was in street clothes.

While Karl maintained his sense of humor, the rest of the Nuggets could not retain their composure.

Anthony Carter was whistled for a technical foul; after fouling Bryant to prevent him from making a layup, he shoved him after Bryant appeared to inadvertently smack him, leaving a welt near Carter’s eye.

Bryant made all three free throws to put the Lakers, who had trailed by 8 in the second quarter, ahead by 67-58 early in the third. The Nuggets never got closer than 9 the rest of the way.

Shortly afterward, Carmelo Anthony (30 points), who was subjected to chants of “D-U-I” — a reference to his arrest last Monday on suspicion of drunken driving — was staggered when he was hit in the face by a pass by Lakers guard Derek Fisher.

In the end, Allen Iverson, who also scored 30, was unable to rally the Nuggets. He was called for a pair of technical fouls and ejected after arguing a no-call with 2 minutes 37 seconds to play.

“I deserved to get thrown out at that point,” Iverson said. “I was frustrated.”

It was a miserable day from finish to start for the Nuggets. It began with one of their team buses blowing a tire on the Santa Monica Freeway on the way to the game.

Players, trainers and staff exited the bus and stood on the shoulder of the road as they waited for the team’s second bus, which left a half hour later, to pick them up.

Karl said it could have been worse.

“I’m glad it was in L.A. and not Minnesota with four inches of snow,” said Karl, whose team will play again in Los Angeles on Wednesday in Game 2.

He was not the only one pleased to be in Los Angeles. Gasol, who arrived in a midseason trade with Memphis, had lost all 12 of his previous playoff games with the Grizzlies. He was ebullient.

“It feels amazing,” Gasol said. “I had a blast. It was a great atmosphere. We did a pretty good job, but we can do better.”

[More at www.nytimes.com]