Lakers Pounded In STAPLES Opener

Yahoo Sports: LOS ANGELES (AP) — Carmelo Anthony had 26 points, eight rebounds and six assists, and Kenyon Martin added 16 points to lead the Denver Nuggets to a 105-94 exhibition victory over the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday night.

Kwame Brown led Los Angeles with 16 points on 7-for-8 shooting. Kobe Bryant had 15 points and three assists in 30 minutes and was 6-for-16 from the field for the Lakers, who shot 42.5 percent, including 3-for-17 from 3-point range.

Denver opened the game with a 16-3 run that included six of Anthony’s 20 first-half points. His 3-pointer gave the Nuggets a 63-53 halftime lead.

DerMarr Johnson’s three-point play capped an 11-2 spurt that gave Denver an 81-61 lead with 5:08 left in the third quarter. Less than 1 1/2 minutes later, Martin slammed home a perfect alley-oop feed from Anthony, and the Lakers got no closer than 11 points after that as Greg Buckner and Anthony Miller contributed the bulk of Denver’s offense in the fourth quarter.

Phil Jackson, coaching the Lakers at Staples Center for the first time since the 2004 playoffs, got a standing ovation when he took his place on the sidelines toward the end of the pregame shootaround. He acknowledged the crowd with a nod of his head and a wide grin that he usually reserves for championship clinchers.

The Lakers (2-2) will remain in Los Angeles to face the Bobcats on Friday night (7:30 PM PST) as part of this STAPLES Center pre-season tourney. As always, we will have live Gameday coverage in our CL.com Forums!

What was your take on Phil Jackson’s return to STAPLES Center? Is this type of defense going to cut it in the regular season? Sound off in our CL.com Gameday Discussion!

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