The point is, it didn't matter.

"He was not a factor in establishing our lead," Phil Jackson said.

The Lakers were already up 19 in this one, their 2008 playoff debut against Denver. The fourth quarter would prove little more than an exercise in — let me borrow from Marv Albert's lexicon — extended garbaaage time.

All of this goes to show just how good the Lakers can be, but also, while I'm at it, just how right I was about the MVP.

"I just make myself more of a decoy," said Bryant, who was 2-for-10 after two quarters. "I can have a half where I really don't score."

The New Orleans Hornets, unlike the Lakers, can't afford to have Chris Paul take a half off. Chris Paul can't play decoy. He's not surrounded with the kind of talent Kobe Bryant has. It's not even close.

Forgive the digression. I now beg a pardon from each of you irate Laker fans. Though I may hate, don't hate me back. Rather, consider me a herald of your good fortune. This is great news for all of you who desperately need Bryant to get a ring without having to thank Shaquille O'Neal.

The Lakers pulled away in the third quarter, scoring 39 points. By then, Pau Gasol had 34 points, 11 rebounds and five assists. Gasol isn't Shaq. Much to Bryant's relief, he doesn't command nearly that kind of attention, on or off the court.

Still, Gasol — covered by Marcus Camby, the NBA's reigning Defensive Player of the Year — knows how to play the game. He recognizes the angles that yield advantage, both for him and his team.

With Martin's attention devoted to Bryant, Camby would run out on double-teams.

"He had to leave me a lot to take care of the other guys," Gasol said.

"It was a little unusual. ... I don't get that many looks under that basket."

The problem, at least for the Nuggets, was the way the Lakers moved the ball. Double-teams don't work against teams that make the right pass. And that's what happened — the Lakers kept making the right pass. In fact, this group has the potential to distinguish itself as the best passing team Phil Jackson ever coached.

The big guys pass even better than the guards. Gasol and Lamar Odom finished with 14 assists combined. Luke Walton tallied five. Vladimir Radmanovic had four — three to them to Gasol for dunks or layups — in the third quarter alone.

"I found the open gaps and my teammates found me," said Gasol. "I think that's definitely one of our biggest strengths — the way we move the ball and share the ball. We have a lot of guys with really high basketball IQs."

"It's tough to match up against us," Bryant said. "We can all pass. ... Guys make the third, fourth and fifth passes to get the open shot.

"All of are guys — one through 12 — can pass the ball."

The most accomplished of them may be Lamar Odom, who's also big enough to have finished with 14 boards. Early in the game, there was a series of touch passes from Walton to Odom to a cutting Gasol for a layup.

Then, in the second quarter, Odom did it twice in 21 seconds. The best pass of the game — a game that saw many of them — was Odom's no-look shovel off a steal.

Of course, as it happened, Kobe Bryant got his, scoring 18 in the fourth quarter, including nine of them from the line. He finished with 32 mostly meaningless points. At least his legion of fans slept well.

But if you want to know what gives this Lakers team the chance to be different from the others, consider Bryant's final basket. It came on alley-oop dunk, the pass thrown by the game's high scorer, Gasol.

It was Gasol's eighth assist, capping his first playoff win. He had been 0-12 with the Memphis Grizzlies.

"This ain't Memphis," said Bryant, the presumptive MVP.

It ain't New Orleans, either.