DENVER - It was all very predictable this time. The lukewarm start. The missing step late. The fuzzy shooting touch throughout.

Having already taken Game 3 on this trip, the Lakers – these Lakers, still discovering what they’re about and the playoffs are about – weren’t going to take Game 4, too.

No way. No how. Not now.

“We played hard enough, but they played harder,” Pau Gasol said after losing to the Nuggets, 120-101. “We have to learn from this loss and go out and prove ourselves in the next game.”

A different loss, but the same lesson. Failing to match the other team’s energy means failing to match the other team’s point total.

Seems pretty simple, right? Must not be, though, given the Lakers’ penchant for repeating the mistake.

This seems especially true when playing a mile above sea level. Whether it was the altitude or just the attitude Monday, the Lakers didn’t play with enough air beneath them.

“Disappointed that we didn’t compete tonight and give ourselves a chance,” said Coach Phil Jackson, and not for the first time this postseason. “If we were tired, it was noticeable because their energy was better. That’s perhaps the only thing I could say, but that’s not a good excuse.”

There were a lot of things not good about this game. Being outrebounded 58-40 was not good. Permitting 20 offensive rebounds was not good. Committing 31 personal fouls was not good.

Maybe this is just part of the process, part of a team figuring out how to be a champion. But it’s the frustrating part, to be sure.

“I think with a young team, when you have a 2-1 series lead, it’s kind of the attitude where you don’t … every play is not as important,” Kobe Bryant said. “When you’re tired you say, ‘OK, I don’t have to get that ball’ or ‘I don’t have to get on the floor for this loose ball,’ as opposed to taking every possession like it’s the last possession.”

That’s the thing about these Lakers, they aren’t good enough to think that way nor nearly good enough to play that way.

They didn’t exactly give away this game, but they definitely wasted a chance to beat Denver on a night when Carmelo Anthony was limping, sick and shooting like he would have preferred to be in bed.

A great team finds a way to win and seize these Western Conference finals, going up three games to one.

This Lakers team finds only more non-answers and has to settle for being tied two games apiece going back to Staples Center.

This is what the Lakers are right now – good, not great. Still a contender, not yet a champion.

“It’s not like we can turn it on, turn it off,” Bryant said, putting into words what his teammates had just put into action. “They whooped us, period. They whooped us on the glass. They whooped us to loose balls. They played harder and better, period.”

At halftime, Anthony was 1 of 11 and Chauncey Billups had two field goals and one assist and the Lakers still trailed comfortably, 52-45.

Or maybe that should be uncomfortably. Just a day earlier, Bryant had talked about the importance of taking advantage of the Nuggets when Anthony struggles with his shot.

Short of being removed from Pepsi Center in a body bag, Anthony (stomach virus and sore ankle) isn’t going to struggle worse than he did Monday. And the Lakers failed to grab the opportunity.

No, this wasn’t exactly a repeat of Houston and that Game 4. This time the Lakers showed up in more than name only and played with noticeable – even if still not enough – passion.

Three minutes into the second half they had a chance to tie the score and an open shot to do it. But Derek Fisher’s three-pointer rimmed out, the Nuggets scored on their next possession and the moment and night had passed.

Along with more lacking passion, most of the Lakers played with a severe lack of production.

Lamar Odom made one basket in nearly 30 minutes. Trevor Ariza scored three points in more than 25 minutes. The bench went 7 of 27 from the field.

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After the Lakers’ best two players – Bryant and Gasol – it apparently was a battle to see who could be their worst player. Only Andrew Bynum (14 points on 6 of 7 shooting) was also solid among the main participants.

“It was a three-man show,” Denver Coach George Karl said, “and that wasn’t enough tonight, fortunately.”

It wasn’t enough and wasn’t always pretty.

The Pepsi Center fans spent much of the second half belittling Bryant with vulgar chants.

The Nuggets’ Dahntay Jones intentionally tripped Bryant on a play Jackson characterized as “unacceptable” and “unsportsmanlike basketball.”

At one point, Denver actually ran a play that resulted in a successful lob to a man named Linas.

So this series will be extended and so will be the Lakers.

Also on NBCSports.com Rosenthal: Saints win with aggressive ‘ambush’ Trash Talk: How will Manning rebound from loss? NBA: ProBasketballTalk is here! Check out new blog NCAA BK: Who's in, who's out? Updated bracket projections Twitter: Follow us @nbc_sports

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