Melo and Kobe each scored 35 points, but it was a mistaken whistle that robbed Denver fans of the home victory in a great game.

ESPN Boxscore Web: LA Lakers at Denver (Denver Post) Web: Referees stink up finish (Denver Post) Up Next: @ San Antonio, Sat @ 6:30MT

An inadvertent loss...

Let's get right to the crux of things.

With 1:13 left in the game, the Nuggets had a 7 point lead after Andre Miller drove into the lane and dished a pretty pass to Nene for the slam.

Kobe calmly came down and swished a 3-pointer from several feet beyond the arc. Unfortunately, I had a feeling it was going in before it left his hands - he just hits those kind of shots, especially against the Nuggs this year.

So, no problem right? 55 ticks left and Andre Miller is working the ball into the set offense. Suddenly, Luke Walton... rookie forward Luke Walton?, yes Luke Walton strips the ball from Andre and drives to the open hoop for his only basket of the game.

Nuggets call a full timeout to regroup. They have the ball with 52 seconds left and a 2 point lead - 111-109. Coach Bzdelik runs an iso play for Carmelo Anthony late in the shot clock. The Lakers defense swarms him and Shaq swats the ball out of bounds with 2 seconds lefts on the shot clock. 29 seconds left now and the Nuggets get the ball into Andre Miller who steps back on the baseline and gets a shot off just in time. The shot clock goes off as the ball hits rim and Kobe's hand at the same time. Carmelo grabs the rebound and official Mike Henderson blows his whistle.

What? Why? How?

Carmelo is standing there holding the basketball - and he would have either dunked it or brought it out so that the Lakers would have been forced to foul.

The referee's huddle and decide that yes it was an inadvertant whistle. They award the Lakers a jump ball at half court, even though Carmelo had possession of the ball when the whistle blew. Shaq won the tip with Nene, and with the Nuggets scrambling on defense to cover Kobe and Shaq - rookie Kareem Rush was left open for a three-point attempt with 3 seconds left. He nailed it. The Nuggets inbound the ball and from just inside half-court, Andre Miller's prayer hit the front of the rim and fell short, just like the Nuggets.

A new all-time record crowd of 19,812 people stood stunned and angry. People started throwing food and the remainder of their beverages at the court, and three uniformed police officers came out and escorted the refs to the exit. Coach Bzdelik was hopping mad - more mad than I have ever seen him. Assistant coach T.R. Dunn had to restrain him to keep him from going after the refs. It was an ugly scene to end a great, great game.

Don't get me wrong - I'm heartbroken from this loss - the first time the Nuggets have lost 4 in a row this season, and with a 15 point lead at one point in the second half, it really was looking good. The Nuggets outplayed the Lakers much of this game, but the wild span of less than 2 minutes was their downfall.

Anthony had another stellar game putting in 35 points on 14-25 (56%) shooting. He was perfect from the line and had 3 offensive rebounds. He did also lead the team with 7 turnovers - but several of those were defensive fouls by the Lakers that weren't called.

Nene had a great line with 10 pts, 6 rebounds, 8 assists, and 3 steals. His downfall was again at the line, where he has been improved overall this year, but in the last two games (Memphis and Lakers) he has shot 2-11 there. This year, we've been in the top 10 for free throw shooting, but it let us down in each of these past two games. Against the Lakers the team was 21-31 for a 67% effort.

Andre Miller stepped up with 21 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, and 4 steals. Jon Barry also deserves mention as he re-discovered his shooting stroke and nailed two in a span of less than 30 seconds late in the first half.

A strange stat was the fact that we outrebounded the Lakers 38-35, yet Camby, who played only 27 minutes after re-aggravating his hamstring injury, had only 4 of those. (He's been averaging over 12 a game lately) Andersen and newcomer Doleac pulled down 13 between them in limited minutes.

To sum this tough loss up, I'll go with what I heard from Coach Bzdelik after the game, as I was driving home. It was probably the best interview I've ever heard him give. While it would have been extremely easy and somewhat expected to slander the refs for costing the Nuggets the win, he decided to rise above it. Coach said:

"I'm damn proud of our players. If they keep playing hard like they did tonight, we will win our share of games. These guys have no quit, and the city of Denver should not give up on these guys. The most important thing we do now is what we do next," Bzdelik said. "Successful people only dwell on the negative for a short time."

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Til next game,

Alan