Five technical fouls, one flagrant foul, one ejection, three busy referees.
Game 1 wasn't so much the start of a series as it was the beginning of an undercard. Tempers weren't the main event, but they bobbed and weaved into the flow Sunday at Staples Center.
In one corner, the Denver Nuggets pushed and shoved on a couple of layup sequences.
In the other corner, the Lakers managed to keep level heads, picking up only one technical foul, which happened to go to Kobe Bryant . . . again.
The Nuggets aren't known for being the latest incarnation of Detroit's "Bad Boys" teams, but Bryant didn't seem to mind.
An avowed devotee of old-school basketball, he laughed it off.
"It's like vintage '80s, except for if you knock a guy to the floor, you'll get suspended for a game or so," Bryant said. "It's playoff basketball. It's nothing personal. There's no dislikes or anything like that, but guys want to win, so guys are going to commit hard fouls and play physical and talk a little trash."
Bryant was hit with a technical foul after jawing with Denver forward Kenyon Martin with 4:30 left to play.
"Just having a good old healthy conversation," Bryant said, smiling.
In a slight case of here-we-go-again, players are allowed six technical fouls in the playoffs before being suspended for one game after picking up their seventh. Bryant had 15 in the regular season and played the last 10 games without picking up a 16th technical that would have led to a one-game suspension.
He was somber when asked about toeing the line in the playoffs.
"If I get suspended a game in the playoffs for that, I'll retire," he said. "I'll just quit."
There wasn't much quit in the Lakers on Sunday.
J.R. Smith picked up a flagrant foul for crashing into Luke Walton as he attempted a layup, but Walton answered by making two free throws.
Bryant almost ended up among the baseline photographers after Anthony Carter fouled him on a layup attempt and then pushed him after the play. Bryant, however, made three free throws -- two for the personal foul and one for a technical assessed to Carter.
Carter later said he was retaliating because he was hit in the face by Bryant on the play. Bryant disagreed, saying he was simply off-balance.
"That was completely unintentional," he said. "I'm going out of bounds, going after a ball . . . I had to be Neo from 'The Matrix' to see him behind me."
