Is this a must-win game?

Lamar Odom laid it out pretty clearly today after practice. He said the Lakers wanted to win their first two games against the Denver Nuggets. The Nuggets, he said, needed to win their first two games against the Lakers. Now, it's the Lakers who need to win Sunday afternoon's showdown with the Nuggets at Staples Center. "We're looking forward to beating them because they beat us," Odom said. "They looked forward to playing us and beating us (earlier this season), because we really took care of them (in the playoffs the last two seasons). We just saw it as just one more game. They changed that by beating our butts pretty good. ... We need to let them know we can beat them."

FYI: the Nuggets won the first two games by 26 points and by 13.