Lakers 54, Nuggets 48 (halftime)
There shouldn't be much suspense regarding what fill-in Lakers coach John Kuester will address at halftime after a second quarter in which his team regressed mightily on defense.
The Denver Nuggets turned portions of the quarter into a glorified layup line while closing to within two points before the Lakers made a late push. Veteran point guard Andre Miller was particularly hard to stop for the Lakers, scoring eight points on largely uncontested shots.
Matt Barnes has provided a lift with 15 points on six-for-seven shooting off the bench to lead the way for the Lakers, including a 16-foot fadeaway jumper at the halftime buzzer.
Metta World Peace and Andrew Bynum have 11 points apiece for the Lakers, but Bynum does not appear to be on the way to a repeat of his 30-rebound performance from two days ago against San Antonio, grabbing only three in 17 first-half minutes.
Miller leads Denver with 10 points.
Lakers 30, Nuggets 19 (end of first quarter)
Kobe Bryant wasn't the only Lakers mainstay missing in action in the first quarter Friday night at Staples Center.
Lakers spokesman John Black told Fox Sports reporter Lindsay Rhodes that Coach Mike Brown had to leave the arena before the team played the Denver Nuggets because of undisclosed personal reasons, leaving assistant John Kuester to take over the coaching duties.
The Lakers looked just fine without their coach and leading scorer, taking an early double-digit lead behind excellent ball movement and a strong effort from Metta World Peace. The small forward had seven points, two rebounds and two assists in the first quarter.
Andrew Bynum added 10 points and took three rebounds for the Lakers, who shot 52% from the field to the Nuggets' 34.8% and were outrebounding them, 15-9. Kenneth Faried and Ty Lawson had four points each for Denver.
It wasn't the first time this season that Kuester has filled in for Brown; Kuester also did it against Philadelphia in February after Brown was suspended for making contact with an official in the previous game.
Bryant was sitting out a fourth consecutive game because of a sore left shin, with the Lakers having gone 2-1 in his first three games on the sideline.
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