LOS ANGELES — Kobe Bryant pulled his jersey over his face, which made sense. He didn’t want to look at the Denver Nuggets’ bench on Thursday night. He didn’t want to see a resurrected team.

Yes, the Nuggets have risen.
They were down by 14 points. They had lost 11 straight playoff games to the Lakers.
But the Nuggets conquered the deficit, the happy crowd, their sorry past and King Kobe. They dropped the Lakers, 106-103, and jet back to Colorado with a tied series and every reason to believe.
“We’re a special team and we got a chance to do something really special,” Chauncey Billups said.
For years — heck, for decades — the Nuggets have been a franchise that falls and can’t recover. After Tuesday’s heart-crushing, oh-what-might-have-been loss, the Nuggets could have wilted. That’s been the norm for a long time.
On Tuesday night, coach George Karl stumbled around with a devastated look. One more play, he told himself, and the Nuggets could have claimed the biggest victory in franchise history.
On Wednesday, he watched film of the loss for hours and slowly his mood brightened. He saw how fiercely his team battled. He saw Anthony toying with Lakers defenders.
And he stopped mourning and started believing.
The Nuggets tested his belief. During much of the first half, the Nuggets offered superb imitations of sleepwalkers. Bryant danced past befuddled defenders for 14 first-quarter points. The Nuggets looked ready to lose by 30.
“I’m not going to even think about the first half,” Billups said. “It was painful.”
The Nuggets trailed by 14. The crowd at Staples Center was cheering, even if hardly anyone bothered standing. The Nuggets were teetering.
Then Anthony scored 13 points in less than 4 minutes. Linas Kleiza and Billups dropped 3s. And the crowd grew quiet. The Lakers’ lead faded to a point, and they never were the same.
The Nuggets nearly marched into Southern California and snatched two victories. Imagine what they might do in Colorado, where on Friday hundreds of thousands of friends await their new favorite team.
On Saturday night at Pepsi Center, fans will offer a joyous, thunderous welcome to a fresh version of the Nuggets. For years, a mostly unloved NBA team has labored in downtown Denver.
The Nuggets didn’t know how to win when it mattered most. When other teams were making game-altering plays, the Nuggets were standing around and watching.
Tuesday’s game was a masterpiece, a basketball creation for the ages. It was a crisp, gorgeous classic.
Thursday’s game resembled a wrestling match. It was rowdy and ugly.
The biggest shot of the game served as a rare moment of precision. With 30 seconds left, Nene drove toward the heart of the Lakers’ defense, where big men awaited him.
He rose as if to shoot and fooled everyone. He dumped the ball to Kenyon Martin for one of those layups an infant could make.
Finally, the Nuggets were altering the game, and the Lakers were the befuddled spectators.
On the Nuggets’ bench, Martin’s and Nene’s teammates were shouting and dancing while they celebrated a new era, a new team and a new hope.