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DENVER - Pau Gasol cocked his head to the side, raised an eyebrow with pleasant surprise and smiled as if to say so this is what it's like to be on a really good NBA playoff team.
It was still quite early in the second half of the Lakers, 102-84 Game 3 victory at the time, and Gasol hadn't had to do anything but run around a little while Kobe Bryant, Derek Fisher and Lamar Odom took control of the game and the Lakers' first-round playoff series with the Denver Nuggets.
The Lakers dominated Saturday without needing much from Gasol, burdened as the sole star player and then buried via sweep all three times he made the postseason in Memphis.
The Lakers didn't know playoff success in recent years, either. But Bryant, Fisher and Luke Walton - the only current Lakers who were around back in 2004, the last time the Lakers won a series - made sure that the Lakers took a commanding 3-0 series lead on Denver, the situation from which no NBA team has ever come back to win in 83 tries.
"I tip my hat to L.A.," Denver coach George Karl said. "They are better than I thought they were.
They are a very confident team."
The reality that the Lakers, with their multifaceted triangle offense and their good-helping defense, are more of a team than the isolation-oriented Nuggets has become plain.
Bryant (22 points, eight assists) didn't have to be over the top individually, but he did assert himself offensively when the Lakers pulled away after halftime.
Bryant pronounced "our biggest strength" after the game to be depth of skill: "The thing we have is every single player can make plays," he said.
Bryant said that the beauty of the Lakers' play is that when he gets double-teamed, whichever teammate he gives the ball will be a threat to do more than shoot. Walton, delivering his third consecutive stellar outing with 15 points on 6-of-7 shooting and five assists, was the prime example.
"Everybody who receives the ball can make a play for somebody else," Bryant said.
With a 19-point lead entering the fourth quarter, Bryant told his teammates on the bench: "Go for the throat."
The Nuggets already were looking to go for their own throats, though. Carmelo Anthony said afterward:
