DENVER — Chris Andersen swooped into Lamar Odom’s air space to rudely and cleanly erase his shot. The crowd at Pepsi Center rose.

The Denver Nuggets led by five early in the fourth quarter. The Los Angeles Lakers were staggering. A huge win was right there, ready to be snatched.
And Chauncey Billups missed a quick, deep, senseless 3-point attempt.
The 3-point line holds this false lure. Fire away, far from the hard work required to score in the lane, and you get 3 points instead of only 2.
The arc lured the Nuggets to disaster. Their lazy reliance on the 3 is a prime reason they lost to the Lakers on Saturday night. They now face a brutally tough road to the NBA Finals.
Over and over, the Nuggets drained momentum by settling for long shots. They had endless chances to bury the Lakers, who were resurrected by Denver’s silly shot selection. The Nuggets missed 22-of-27 3-point attempts.
The Lakers’ interior defense is hardly terrifying. Andersen understands this truth, which explains how he soared to 15 points, dropping 6-of-9 shots, in only 23 minutes.
Andersen is a terrific, energetic defender, but his offensive style is simple. He has few moves. Basically, he jumps high and dares a defender to stop him.
And no one on the Lakers hindered his flights.
Center Pau Gasol is a soft, Euro-style center. Poor Odom is a guard trapped in a power forward’s body.
The lane beckons to the Nuggets. It’s a place where great things could happen, if they do the hard work required to succeed there.
Carmelo Anthony has missed 12 of his past 13 3-point tries. He’s often been sensational in this series, but lately he’s been blindly stubborn.
Can anyone on the Lakers stop Anthony when he rampages to the basket?
No, but that doesn’t stop him from roaming far from the rim. Anthony missed 9-of-13 shots Saturday, but those numbers are deceptive. He was fine from close range, making 3-of-6 2-point attempts.
He missed 6-of-7 from beyond the 3-point arc.
After the game, Nuggets coach George Karl moaned about the officiating. He believes refs missed obvious fouls on Anthony and Andersen.
His words were what you expect from the losing side.
But then Karl offered a slice of basketball wisdom.
“When you attack, attack, attack, there’s a tendency to get more,” he said.
Karl was speaking of earning more fouls, but he could have been talking about more points and victories.
He’s right. Players get more by attacking.
When a team fires away shamelessly and needlessly from long range, there’s a tendency to get less.
The lane beckons, but so does the 3-point arc, with all its fake promises.
The Nuggets can stretch this series if they attack, attack, attack.
Or they can start their vacation early if they retreat to distant spaces and fall for the deadly lure of the 3.