As he walked off the Pepsi Center court in February following his team's lone regular-season loss to Denver, he told Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony, "I'll see you in the Western Conference finals."

"I just felt like they had all the pieces," Bryant said. "They had the depth. They had the toughness. They had the camaraderie. It's no surprise to me at all that they're here."

The Nuggets and Lakers meet again tonight at Staples Center, in the opener of a series that figures to be far more competitive than the one-sided first-round matchup LA swept a year ago. This Denver team hardly resembles last year's, having dumped freelancing Allen Iverson in favor of Chauncey Billups' toughness and leadership, and upgraded its defense by adding perimeter stopper Dahntay Jones and shot-blocker Chris Andersen.

Whereas the Lakers' stature suffered after wobbling through a seven-game series with Houston, the torrid Nuggets ousted the Hornets and Mavs in five games to improve to 22-5 since March 10. Perhaps that's why the Nuggets exuded carefree confidence at practice Monday morning, several players shooting around beforehand with caps turned sideways and aviator sunglasses shielding their eyes.

"Last year it was a first-round series and we were an eighth seed," Nuggets forward Kenyon Martin said. "Now it's a lot different. Our confidence is a lot higher and we're playing a lot better Basketball than we were last year. We've got different players, different attitudes. We're a much better team."

The most daunting challenge facing the Lakers' coaching staff is quickly preparing the team for Denver. While the Nuggets began planning for the Lakers days before they knew their next opponent, the Lakers had only a lengthy film session at Monday's practice to implement a game plan and review Denver's tendencies.

"The nuances will come later," Coach Phil Jackson said, referring to out-of-bounds plays or set plays Denver likes to run. "That's kind of the reason I've said we're going to have to play on energy and emotion (tonight)."

It won't take a lot of studying for the Lakers to realize the importance of slowing Anthony, who has averaged 27 points and 6.4 rebounds in the playoffs but faltered against LA in the regular season. Anthony averaged 14.5 points on 32.8 percent shooting in four matchups, struggling to get touches against Trevor Ariza's quickness or to get clean looks over Lamar Odom's length.

The Nuggets will throw a combination of Martin, Nene and Andersen at Pau Gasol to prevent him from approaching the 22.3 points and 9.0 rebounds he averaged against them in last year's postseason. And Jones will shadow Bryant when he's in the game, though Anthony will get plenty of opportunities to defend the Lakers star.

"You've got to try to make him take tough shots, make him work hard and make his day a little uncomfortable," Jones said. "I don't think you can shut a guy like that down."

In the second round, the Lakers' troubles began when Houston surprised them at home to open the series. They're determined to not let that happen again.

"With Houston, that's where it all started going in the wrong direction," Gasol said.

"Losing that Game 1, they came out more aggressive than we did and we weren't sharp from the week off," Gasol said. "If we win the first two games against Denver, it's all going to go in our favor."

Reach Jeff Eisenberg at 951-368-9357 or jeisenberg@PE.com