Whether it was Andrew Bynum’s “easy” comment or maybe the Lakers’ dry erase board in their locker room, which advised the Lakers to pack for three days just before their visit to Denver for game six, whatever it was that fueled Denver’s fire that forced game seven was missing Saturday night.

The Nuggets had a chance to make history and although the loss to L.A. wasn’t by much it was obvious that the fire that existed in games five and six was all but a dim flame. It’s hard to say what took the wind out of Denver’s sails, but one thing is for sure, Denver still made a game of it. After coming out the first half down by 6, Denver began to inch their way back ending the third only down by 1.

The sometimes-lethargic Lakers from game five and game six were crisp and were firing on all cylinders finally getting production from Pau Gasol and Steve Blake. The return of Metta World Peace (a.k.a.) Ron Artest was a non-factor until the second half where he made 12 of his 15 for the night. The contentious forward returned to game seven after a six-game suspension when he intentionally threw an elbow at Oklahoma guard James Harden’s head, sending him to the floor with a concussion.

On Monday night the Thunder hosted the Lakers in game one of their series in Oklahoma with an unforgiving crowd who made it clear that the Thunder would be living up to its name. Thunder’s revenge was sweet and without conflict or hastiness. The final score … wait for it Nuggets fans … Oklahoma 119 – L.A. 90.

In other sports: The Colorado Rockies appear to be in some early season death spiral as they continue to fall further and further below .500. During game seven of the Nuggets/L.A. series the Rockies, too, were in SoCal hoping to keep pace with the Dodgers. Unfortunately the Rockies shared the same fate as the Nuggets, but in a much more embarrassing manner. Colorado was swept by the Dodgers three games to none over the weekend and have also fallen to the San Francisco Giants in game one of their series on Monday, bringing the Rockies record to 13-21. Colorado has lost 10 of their last 12.