Nuggets 118, Lakers 112

DENVER -- The streak is dead. The Lakers learned a painful lesson about closing out games tonight, when they lost for the first time in nine games to start the season. The Denver Nuggets took them apart in the fourth quarter, capitalizing on runs of 16-0 and 11-0. The Lakers took too many 3-pointers to suit Coach Phil Jackson and they couldn't stop Ty Lawson or Carmelo Anthony in the fourth quarter. Denver outscored the Lakers, 33-19, in the fourth quarter while shooting 60 percent to the Lakers' 29.2.

"That is what they do," Kobe Bryant said of the Nuggets. "We know this team very well. We know what they are capable of doing. Ty Lawson is very good at that, J.R. (Smith) is obviously, too, so we are not surprised by that."

Of Anthony, who scored 32 points, Bryant said: "That is a bad boy."

Bryant scored 34 points on 11-for-32 shooting.