There have been a lot of questions about the Los Angeles Lakers throughout this postseason.

There was the stated goal of getting back to the NBA Finals, where they were pushed around by the bigger, badder Boston Celtics and earned the label of a finesse team.

There were a pair of embarrassing efforts against the shorthanded Houston Rockets, which had people wondering whether the Lakers owned a killer instinct.

There was a matchup with the rough-and-tumble Denver Nuggets, who bullied their first two foes right of the playoffs and made no secret of their desire to turn the Western Conference finals into a brawl and see if the Lakers would punk out.

There was a Game 7 waiting back at home if the Lakers felt like mailing in another road litmus test or turning the other cheek to a right cross. A win Sunday would silence the questions — at least until the next time they approached a postseason game as if it were a pillow fight.

Instead of silencing the questions, Kobe Bryant and the Lakers answered them, once and for all.

The Lakers may never be a physical team. Even after Friday's 119-92 win at Denver, coach Phil Jackson was talking about execution and energy instead of his team's willingness to answer a push with a shove. But the lingering doubts about the team's mental toughness and killer instinct were eradicated.

"(This postseason was) much much tougher, much more physical," said Bryant, who had a brilliantly balanced 35 points and 10 assists. "It was mentally challenging for us."

"The struggle is really going to help us," said Pau Gasol, who justified his demand for the ball with 20 points and six assists. "It's toughened us up."

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The Lakers credited the Nuggets for their newfound mental muscle — "They're a great team," Bryant said Friday for about the 50th time during the series — and Denver coach George Karl gladly accepted.

"I saw all those little cracks in the Lakers and somehow we cemented them back up," he said.

The guy wielding the epoxy was Bryant, whose second quarter was stunningly similar to what LeBron James did one night earlier, with one difference: For some reason, the talking heads weren't trying to one-up each other with unabashed gushing.

Upon returning to the game at the 8:41 mark, Bryant was responsible for all but two of the next 23 points for the Lakers as he singlehandedly took the game — and the series — from the Nuggets.

While the crowd at the Pepsi Center was oohing and aahing at J.R. Smith's hot hand, Bryant was operating under the radar, setting up three different teammates for baskets.

With just over three minutes left in the first half, Bryant went all Kyra Sedgwick and slipped into closer mode about an hour early. The Lakers scored on their last seven possessions of the half as Bryant toyed with Denver's defense.

There were two free throws and a jumper before finding hot hand Trevor Ariza for a 3-pointer. Bryant added two more saccharine-sweet jumpers and — after Derek Fisher found Pau Gasol for a dunk — stuck in an early dagger with a corner 3-pointer for a 53-40 lead heading to the locker room.

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