Denver’s 105-79 victory over Los Angeles Friday night exposed the unproductive Lakers’ bench (again) and gave the Nuggs a little (very little) bit of payback for being eliminated from the playoffs last season. The Nuggets’ 58-56 halftime lead blew up to 87-64 by the end of third quarter. J.R. Smith scored 20 to go with Carmelo Anthony’s 25 but the play of the night went to rookie point guard Ty Lawson for his dunk over a couple of Lakers.

It wasn’t as good/bad as Dwyane Wade dunking on Anderson Varejao but Lawson’s listed at generous 5-11. He dunked on a foot taller DJ Mbenga and let Josh Powell get a little too. This game and the dunk on a smaller level, show the Lakers’ title defense isn’t gonna be the cakewalk everybody was predicting.