LOS ANGELES – Having rediscovered their inside game against the Nuggets to take a commanding 3-2 lead in their Western Conference finals, the Los Angeles Lakers know they need to follow suit in Friday's Game Six in Denver.

The gritty Nuggets are a very difficult team to beat at home but the Lakers, with Kobe Bryant playing the role of facilitator, proved on Wednesday they can take advantage of their bigger and taller starting forwards.

Instinctively aggressive and double-teamed virtually every time he takes to the court, Bryant orchestrated the plays superbly in the final quarter at Staples Center, freeing up Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom for driving runs to the basket.

"I just had to quarterback it a little bit," Bryant told reporters after scoring 22 points on six-for-13 shooting from the floor. "They cocked their whole defense to me so I tried to beat them with my passing a little bit.

"They've been so ready to trap me and double team me all over the place so I just stretched the floor out, Pau, they double teamed him on the post too.

"So all we did was just put the ball in my hands, put the ball in his (Gasol's) hands, make the defense commit and then we made plays from there."

Reserve forward Odom defied a lower back injury to record a double-double with 19 points and 14 rebounds. Spanish starting forward Gasol was not far behind with a tally of 14 and 10.

"Odom had a huge game for them," Nuggets coach George Karl said. "I thought that was the thing they hadn't gotten (earlier in the series).

Getting loose

"He got loose and played very well, especially around the basket, and he finished a lot of shots. He actually missed some shots that were very close to the basket, too."

Odom felt the Lakers resurgence in the final quarter had been triggered by better communication and ensuring that the Nuggets gained very few second chances.

"That really helped us," he said. "We executed on offense and took good shots. They didn't have any fast breaks, in the fourth quarter especially.

"They do a good job at overloading, doubling down and getting back to their man. We wanted to get the ball to Pau or Kobe, score in position and make plays off of them. Cut to the rim and the basket and get easy looks. We were able to do that.

"That was one of our best games that we played this year, as far as a team effort, as far as a complete effort from everyone, using everything we had to win a basketball game."

Although the Nuggets have won 17 of their last 18 games at home, Bryant believes the top-seeded Lakers are capable of closing out the best-of-seven series in Game Six.

"The intensity is going to be there," he said of a Lakers team which produced a league-best record of 29-12 on the road in the regular season.

"What we have to do is execute, as simple as that. Be cold-blooded, go out there and execute. We're not the best road team in NBA for no reason."