Looks like quitting time for Nuggets

DENVER -- You want some nuggets? I’ll give you three nuggets.

They’re disorganized.

They’re distracted.

They’re disgraceful.

I know, I know, this is supposed to be a column about the greatness of the Lakers after a 102-84 victory over Denver’s pro basketball team Saturday gave them a three-games-to-none lead in their opening playoff series.

But you can’t praise the ability of a lawn mower without denoting the length of the grass.

And the Denver Nuggets are playing like dirt.

They ignore each other. They disrespect their coach. They scoff at fundamentals.

They are a vastly talented team that has chosen not to offer the Lakers even a fair fight, which is overwhelming in its unfairness.

How can the Lakers judge their playoff acumen if they are beating a Nuggets team whose most energetic moment Saturday occurred in the fourth quarter when their coach George Karl was being heckled?

“Just don’t sit there!”

The heckler’s name? Carmelo Anthony.

How can the Lakers judge their playoff toughness on the road if the most emotional moment in the Pepsi Center stands Saturday occurred late in the game during a wild-swinging fight between two fans?

Two Nuggets fans.

By that time, the game was so awful, most of the Lakers turned to watch the brawl.

The second-most emotional fan moment occurred in the final moments when some of the Denver folk began chanting, “MVP, MVP.”

Not for Allen Iverson, but for Kobe Bryant.

Yeah, it was a real mess, which makes the Lakers a hard team to figure out right now.

We know San Antonio is good enough to win three straight against the tough Phoenix Suns.

It turns out, all we know about the Lakers is that they can win three straight against the junior varsity.

“I don’t know about the Lakers being a great team,” said Iverson, honestly. “I know they’re a good team.”

To win Saturday, they simply had to be a breathing team.

In the Nuggets’ previous two losses to the Lakers back in Los Angeles, they just stunk.

On Saturday, in what they had pronounced their most important game of their season, they just quit.

That’s not my opinion, that’s their opinion.

“We gave up as a whole, and that’s uncalled for,” Anthony said afterward. “We quit. Everybody.”

The Nuggets’ marquee forward was horrendous during the game, making only five of 22 shots, losing the ball on dumb dribbles and silly jumpers, a real oinker of a ball hog.

The only time he seemed to be in control was afterward, sitting in front of his locker, when he summoned the media to gather around him.

And after missing all night, he finally starting hitting, swishing long rips from every direction.

Asked to expound upon his “quit” quote, he said that, actually, others were quitting more than him.

“There is no way I can lay down on my team the way we laid down tonight,” he said.

He said the white flag was unfurled in the third quarter when the Nuggets, who started the game lazily missing 12 of their first 14 shots, finally pulled back to within 10 points.

The crowd was roaring. The Nuggets’ interest seemed growing.

Then the Lakers, with splendid passing and suffocating defense, calmly outscored them 14-5 for the rest of the quarter to clinch it.

“You could sense it, you could just see it,” Anthony said. “We gave up.”

Then, at the start of the fourth quarter, the surrender became complete with Karl’s decision to play Iverson for just 1:11 of that final period, Kenyon Martin just 4:17, and Marcus Camby not at all.

Yeah, when Anthony was talking about quitters, he was also ripping his coach.

In fact, considering his fourth-quarter heckling, he may have been mostly ripping his coach.

“I’m surprised at the fact that we laid down like that,” he said. “We played bad, that happens, but . . . in my five years here, that’s the first time I’ve felt that.”

He shook his head.

“It hurts,” he said. “It hurts bad.”

Across the locker room, Martin agreed with the quitting comments.

“That’s the way it seemed,” he said. “He’s accurate. Wherever you want to point the finger, it’s accurate.”

Karl tried to downplay the talk as nothing more than postgame emotion.

“I think ‘Melo is just feeling frustrated right now,” he said. “I think right now, keeping composure is the best way to go.”

Too late for that.

The best thing the Lakers can take from this series is that they can take a cheap shot.

The Nuggets did not lead once Saturday, except with their forearms and elbows and shoulders.

They rapped on the Lakers from head to toe, knocking them all over the court, rarely breaking the Lakers’ composure.

At one point, Luke Walton shoved henchman Eduardo Najera and shouted, “Get off me!”

But beside that, the Lakers fought back with nine steals, six blocked shots, and only eight turnovers.

Five Lakers scored in double figures, they had assists on 26 of 37 baskets, and then Bryant provided the final shining moment in the final two minutes he walked off the court to a stunningly loud ovation.

This being a foreign court, he was surely surprised, but he reacted quickly, sticking up his thumb and waving to his, um, adoring fans.

On Monday night, to those nice folks’ wretched basketball team, he probably will wave goodbye.

For those who believe in the pride and competitiveness of NBA playoff basketball, it will not be soon enough.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at [email protected]. To read previous columns by Plaschke, go to latimes.com/plaschke.