DENVER — Two nights after being denied the chance to close, Kobe Bryant did the closing Saturday.

Closed the Nuggets.
Closed the game.
Closed the argument.
Bryant remains the best in basketball at finishing. Period. Only hours after LeBron James closed dramatically with a single shot, Bryant closed with an entire quarter not quite as dramatic but certainly just as brilliant.
Sorry, King. The crown still belongs in Los Angeles.
“And he was dead tired, too,” teammate Luke Walton said after the Lakers’ 103-97 Game 3 victory. “It was definitely one of the big-time performances by Kobe.”
Thirteen points in the fourth quarter. Forty-one points total. One ridiculous three-pointer with 69 seconds left to give his team the lead for good.
Bryant launched over J.R. Smith, who was guarding him so closely the two could have swallowed one another other’s Adam’s apple, and dropped a 24-footer to make it 96-95, Lakers. The shot started his team’s 10-2 game-ending, series-shifting run.
Now here’s the most impressive part: Bryant altered his delivery halfway through, literally adjusting in mid-flight.
“To be honest with you, the shot was going short,” Bryant said. “It was going to be well short, and then he got the ball, my arm, whatever, and I had to put a little bit more effort into the shot.”
At the end of Game 2, trailing by three, Coach Phil Jackson designed the final play to go to Derek Fisher, figuring the Nuggets would foul Bryant immediately. Fisher unleashed a desperate airball.
This was either an example of heady strategy or brain-dead coaching. Still not sure which.
But we do know the Lakers lost going with something other than their best, something other than one of the NBA’s all-time best when it comes to slamming the opposition’s face in the door.
Didn’t happen Saturday, mostly because Bryant didn’t let it happen. Just like in Game 1, he nailed down the Nuggets at the free-throw line, making 5 of 6 this time in the final 38.3 seconds.
And he did so despite the fact he couldn’t feel half his body.
“It really helped me, I swear to you,” Bryant said when asked about shooting the free throws amid the angry noise of Pepsi Center. “I couldn’t feel my legs one bit, not at all. And when they started chanting, it just reminded me what we’re playing for. You gotta man up, put these in the hole because of that.”
He wasn’t alone in manning up, two of Bryant’s lesser-proven teammates continuing to develop their playoff personas.
Pau Gasol finished with 20 points and 11 rebounds, eight of those points coming in the fourth quarter, including consecutive turnaround jumpers at a time when the Lakers were gasping for points.
“I didn’t have anything,” Bryant said. “I just laid on the baseline side and just tried to rest, and Pau made some big shots, bought me some time.”
Then there was Trevor Ariza, who again stole a late inbounds pass to finish the Nuggets. This is the sort of play that happens all the time at the YMCA. It now has occurred twice in the Western Conference finals in three games.
On Saturday, Ariza tipped the ball from Carmelo Anthony. In Game 1, he cut in front of Chauncey Billups. Both times, long-limbed Lamar Odom was guarding the player out of bounds.
The absurdity of this unlikely rerun had the media seriously asking the Lakers about their ability to prevent one of the most basic of basketball plays.
“It was kind of funny,” Ariza said. “It was pretty much the same thing, different players involved. But nobody on our team quit. We didn’t give up on the ball or none of that. We tried to fight all the way through.”
Added Walton: “There are a lot of hungry guys in here. We don’t want this to end with anything but a championship. We have to gut some of these games out, like we did tonight.”
That’s what this time of the season is about, playing on guts. Well, that and making gigantic plays.
On Friday, James might have saved only Cleveland’s season with a three-pointer in the final second. A miss would have left the Cavaliers down two games to none going to Orlando.
“I texted him, told him it was a hell of a shot,” Bryant said. “We’re all friends. Everybody tries to make it out like this is a big thing. He does what he does in Cleveland. I do what I do here. But it’s good banter.”
No, it’s great banter and even greater theater. And these conference finals aren’t even halfway over.
There is still plenty of work to be done for the Lakers. Closing time isn’t near yet. But the Lakers have Bryant.