This article originally appeared on November 2, 2008

After shooting a blistering 49% from the field in their first two games of the season, the Los Angeles Lakers were held to 37.9% shooting against the Denver Nuggets on Saturday night.

Despite their shooting woes, the Lakers capitalized on their superior size by outrebounding the Nuggets 53-38. Los Angeles held a 15-3 advantage on the offensive glass and scored 21 second chance points. Pau Gasol led the Lakers with 16 rebounds, with four of his game-high 16 boards coming on the offensive end.

Kobe Bryant led all scorers with 33 points. Bryant scored 14 in the fourth quarter, including back-to-back jumpers that stretched the Lakers lead to five with 6:07 remaining in the final period.

"Kobe picked us up by the bootstraps and carried us home," Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. "I put him in the game with almost eight minutes to go and let him get loose out there."

"The first two games, my teammates really pulled us through," Bryant said. "In a game like tonight, we struggled and shot 37 percent. We were stuck in the mud, and it's my responsibility to get us going."

Carmelo Anthony returned from a two-game suspension and struggled through three quarters. Anthony missed his first five shots from the field, but caught fire late in the fourth when he nailed three consecutive 3-pointers to keep things close.

"I was a little bit rusty out there," Anthony said.

"There was one point in the third quarter when I was just like, 'OK, nothing's going to go in for me today,' " Anthony added. "I tried to get my teammates involved and play defense, because on the offensive end, it wasn't clicking for me tonight."

With Anthony struggling, Allen Iverson became the focal point of Denver's offense as coach George Karl played A.I. at point guard for much of the game. The Nuggets involved Iverson in countless pick-and-rolls, to varying degrees of success. Iverson finished the game with 13 points on 3-of-8 from the field and handed out 7 assists.

Denver's improvement on the defensive end was noticeable. Anthony, in particular, was much more in tune defensively. He was active defending the ball and made several timely defensive rotations.

"Defensively we are making huge strides," Karl said. "If you take first shot misses, they were probably hitting 30 percent."

Denver's defensive improvement was all for naught however, when Karl inexplicably chose to defend 6'6" Kobe Bryant with 6'1" Anthony Carter for much of the decisive fourth quarter.

Bryant provided the late-game heroics, but it was L.A.'s defense and work on the glass that was the difference.

With the score tied at 76-76 heading into the fourth quarter and Denver shooting 50% from the field, the Lakers increased their defensive intensity in the final period. They outscored the Nuggets 28-21 in the fourth quarter, while holding the Nuggets to 33.3% shooting.

The Lakers have switched up their defensive philosophy completely. After years of stubbornly refusing to switch pick-and-rolls, the Lakers double-teamed Anthony and Iverson on the pick-and-roll and aggressively hedged and recovered on everyone else.

They are also employing a ballside zone and forcing baseline penetration that is nearly always met with two trapping defenders.

"They've gone to a zone defense behind the ball that is very interesting because of their length," said Karl. "Their length allows them to zone up and cover the strong side with an extra man."

With the strong-side zoned up, the Lakers are inviting cross-court passes to the weak-side. Kobe Bryant and Trevor Ariza -- essentially playing defensive safety on that side of the court -- capitalized on their length and quickness to pick off several cross-court passes to their end of the floor.

The Lakers can afford to zone up and force penetration because of their defensive presence down low. L.A.'s frontline of Gasol, Bynum, and Odom protected the basket with a combined 4 blocked shots, with two of those coming in the fourth quarter.

"I think the thing that I see improvement in is their defense," Karl said. "There seems to be an added focus. There seems to be more aggressive, disruptive defensive schemes."

It will be interesting to see if the Lakers and Nuggets -? two teams that relied heavily on their scoring ability in the past -- can sustain their defensive improvement over the course of the entire season.

For the Lakers, it could mean the difference between an NBA championship and postseason disappointment. For the Nuggets, it could mean the difference between a playoff berth and total implosion.

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