The Lakers' terrific trio of Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom are poised to win an NBA title. (NBAE/GETTY IMAGES)

After sleep-walking through the first two rounds of the playoffs and the first four games of the Western Conference finals, the Lakers are now fully caffeinated and wide awake.

Pau Gasol is fully stretched, Lamar Odom is back to form and Kobe Bryant looks unstoppable. To borrow a line from the popular Nike Most Valuable Puppets commercials that features Kobe and LeBron James … “What makes his unstoppableness unstoppable?” Nobody knows.

So, cue the Lakers’ championship parade. Bring back Mark Madsen and let him do a little reign dance in front of Staples Center. Give Jack Nicholson a chest bump. And find one of Hef’s Playmates and give her a smooch. As the late great Chick Hearn would say, “This one is in the refrigerator. The door’s closed, the lights are out, the eggs are cooling, the butter’s getting hard and the Jell-O’s jiggling.” The Lakers are back in the NBA Finals and four victories away from a 15th NBA championship. It’s banner time!

When the Lakers are locked in on defense and playing with a high efficiency on offense, no team in the league – and that includes Cleveland and Orlando – that can stop them. The Denver Nuggets saw the Lakers at their best in Game 6 when the Lake Show dispatched the Nuggets, 119-92, on Denver’s home floor.

The domination was evident from the start. Trevor Ariza got the party started by hitting three 3-pointers in the first quarter. After the Nuggets took a 31-30 lead thanks to J.R. Smith, the Lakers went back to work and the game became one-sided. When the Lakers kicked it into sixth gear, there was nothing the Nuggets could do. Kobe Bryant punctuated the first-half assault by swishing a 3-pointer from the corner to give the Lakers a 13-point lead right before halftime. Dagger!

“All through the series, I saw little cracks in the Lakers. Somehow we’ve cemented those cracks back up and I think they’re the best team right now in the NBA,” said Denver coach George Karl, who reluctantly congratulated the Lakers after they eliminated the Nuggets from the postseason.

As usual, Bryant led all scorers with 35 points on 12-of-20 shooting from the field and was a perfect 9-for-9 from the line. The Black Mamba, who also had six rebounds and 10 assists, showed Carmelo Anthony, Chauncey Billups and J.R. Smith how to close out a series.

“Their offensive execution was the best it’s been all series, and their box defense kinda frustrated our offense,” Karl added. “Then No. 24 had a great five minutes at the end of the (half) that no one in basketball could have covered. He made about four shots during that stretch; I think Jesus would have had trouble covering him.”

Though Karl was mesmerized by Bryant’s holy game, Kobe was not alone in cutting up the Nuggets. Pau Gasol also flirted with a triple-double with 20 points, 12 rebounds and six assists, and his proficiency in the post allows the other Lakers to get involved and creates a better balance on offense and defense.

“The last two games we really proved to ourselves and everybody else that we can be an extremely high quality team that deserves to be in the NBA Finals and is going for the NBA championship,” Gasol explained. “We have to do more of that. I think we have been a little inconsistent throughout the year with that. When we move the ball and use all of our weapons, we become really dangerous because the defense then hesitates and doubt if they double team Kobe or not, or go double team me or not and they’re out of balance. Hopefully we can keep it this way.”

Lamar Odom came off the bench to score 20 points on 7-of-12 shooting and Luke Walton enjoyed his best game of the series with 10 points. When Odom is actively involved in the game, teams have a really hard time matching up with the Lakers because it gives them three highly-skilled scoring options. A perfect triangle offense built to overcome any defense. “Whoever woke up Lamar Odom should be fired,” Karl joked. “I thought we had him contained, but he has been sensational the last two games.”

Karl hinted that when Bryant has is going offensively, Gasol is working his post-up game and the 3-point snipers are hitting their mark, the Lakers become unstoppable.

“We never got control of their post-ups,” Karl said as the Lakers made 43 of 75 of their shots from the field (57%) and were 9-of-16 from 3-point range (56%). “When we doubled it, they scored – the three or the two. And when we didn’t double it, they scored on the post-up. Offensively, they got into control of us more than we got in control of them.”

Right now, the Lakers are in complete control of their destiny and it would not matter who plays them in the NBA Finals because there is no stopping the Lake Show.

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Chauncey Billups and Carmelo Anthony combined to score 61 points for Denver in Game 2 in Los Angeles. (GETTY IMAGES)

Score one for Chauncey Billups. The chess matchup between the Lakers and Nuggets took a different turn in Game 2. Lakers Coach Jackson geared his perimeter defense to smothering Billups in Game 1, putting Kobe Bryant on him for much of the game, but Billups made the proper adjustment in Game 2 by being more aggressive off the dribble instead of settling for long-range shots.

Denver Coach George Karl should also get some credit for making a key adjustment, inserting 6-8 Linas Kleiza early in the game instead of 6-1 Anthony Carter. Kleiza rewarded Karl for the opportunity by providing some much-needed outside shooting, which opened up the court for Carmelo Anthony, and his length gave the Nuggets another rebounder.

Kleiza finished with 16 points in 21 minutes, making 4 of 7 threes, and grabbed eight rebounds. Because of Kleiza’s play off the bench and Billups’ leadership, along with Anthony’s brilliance on offense, the Nuggets were able to defeat the Lakers, 106-103, in Game 2.

“We had to win this game,” Karl said. “We’re a more mentally tough team. You look at us from last year and where we are now, it takes time to do that. They know what it takes, what it means to play hard and play with passion.”

As good as Anthony was – and Melo was an absolute beast with 34 points and nine rebounds – his offense was matched by Kobe Bryant, who scored 32 points to lead L.A. While Melo and Kobe were staging their own personal war on the court and ultimately cancelling each other out, it was Billups who stepped into the role of closer and figured out a way to beat the Lakers down the stretch. With the ball in his hands, the Nuggets were able to play more efficiently in the halfcourt set and Billups foiled the Lakers’ pick-and-roll defense by attacking the seams.

With the way the officiating was going with both teams were getting the benefit of some questionable calls, Billups basically put his head down and attacked the basket. As a result, he went to the free throw line 16 times in Game 2, converting 13 shots, and finished with 27 points. Basically, Anthony – who has 73 points in the first two games against L.A. – kept the Nuggets in the game and Billups won the game in the end.

“We’re a special team and we got a chance to do something really special,” said Billups, who committed just one turnover in 43 minutes. “Personally, I’m not worried about what they’re saying about the Lakers. They’re a great team. They’re the No. 1 in the Western Conference. I’m more worried about trying to help my team advance the best I can.”

Denver’s 1-2 punch of Anthony and Billups are two reasons why the Western Conference finals is tied 1-1 and the Nuggets now hold home-court advantage.

“We can’t wait to get back on our court. We’ve been in L.A. a little bit too long now. We want to get back home in front of our crowd,” Anthony said.

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