Wow. Tough game. Rough game. Up-and-down the floor, lots of contact, bodies flying, a scrambling, awkward, bump-and-run, busted-play, improvisational scrum of a game.

That is, the sort of game the Los Angeles Lakers have not been likely to win since, oh, Magic Johnson.

Yet they won it, and it was a huge victory. Lakers 105, Nuggets 103 in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals. In a game Lakers coach Phil Jackson readily conceded his team was outplayed.

Now, the Lakers have a chance to get out of this round against a more physical, more athletic team. Not saying they will. But they have a chance. For the first time since the regular season ended, the Lakers actually looked like a team that has the courage, skill, resourcefulness and will power to get to the Finals, and maybe win them.

As this game unfolded, there were several aspects to it that looked dire for the Lakers.

–They couldn’t control Carmelo Anthony. Kobe Bryant is too small and Trevor Ariza isn’t clever enough to stick with Melo, and he had 20 at the half and 39 in the game.

–The pace was frenzied. The Lakers don’t like frenzied, unless they’re playing a sluggish team like, say, Utah. They never seemed comfortable inside their own offense … or their own skins. The game was a fraction of a second too fast. The Nuggets were all over them, defensively, and pushed the pace after a made basket, when the Lakers are used to jogging back on defense. I was fairly certain they couldn’t win if they didn’t gain control of the game’s tempo, and they never did. But they won anyway.

–The Lakers’ big men were outplayed for most of the game, and that was supposed to be an area of Lakers strength. But it was Nene and Kenyon Martin who looked like the best post players for much of the night, and even Chris Andersen looked hungrier and tougher than Pau Gasol, Andrew Bynum and Lamar Odom. Guys who, c’mon, let’s admit it, don’t like to bang. They really don’t. I counted seven Rockets dunks in the first half. Not layups. Not short bank shots. Massive flushes as the Lakers’ big men watched. The Nuggets seemed to want it more and were willing to do something about that “want.”

So, how did the Lakers win this game? A game in which they were never comfortable? In which they looked harried from beginning to end?

–After a slow start, the Lakers significantly outrebounded the Nuggets, 46-37, and that was a big factor in their getting 16 more field goal attempts, 90-74. (That and the less flattering stat that Denver shot 11 more rebounds, which means a bunch of Nuggets possessions ended with the Lakers fouling someone.)

–Derek Fisher came back from the dead. The 34-year-old point guard, who was essentially useless for the last two months of the season and the first two rounds of the playoffs, started 0-for-6, and “here we go again” seemed the appropriate reaction. But Jackson gave Fisher a few extra minutes of PT, probably because Chauncey Billups can’t break him down with sheer speed like, say, Aaron Brooks or Deron Williams … and Fisher delivered. His first significant shot, and the second-biggest he made in the game, was the three he drained at the buzzer to end the first half, giving the Lakers a 55-53 lead after 24 minutes of being badly outplayed. The biggest shot Fisher made was with 2:30 left, when the Nuggets collapsed on Bryant, he kicked it to D-Fish in the corner and the little guy drained it like it was 1999 to give the Lakers a 97-96 lead.

–The Lakers’ bench. A group that has been maligned, and for good reason, outscored the Nuggets 20-3 in the first half and 27-16 in the game. Turns out it appears to be Denver that has depth issues, with only two bench players scoring (J.R. Smith and Andersen), while the Lakers got seven points from Lamar Odom, five from Luke Walton and Jordan Farmar, four from Josh Powell (a gift from the gods) and three each from Sasha Vujacic and Shannon Brown.

–Kobe. The man seemed to will the Lakers to victory. Carmelo Anthony was better for most of the game, and he seemed to be having fun. Kobe was double-teamed, pushed around, pummeled, didn’t get many calls and got frustrated. Supremely. But he looked as if he would do whatever it took to win this game. His will seemed to ooze out of him and energize skittish or fumbling teammates, and at the end he drained six consecutive clutch free throws and got the game-clinching rebound. Despite playing 43 punishing minutes against a grabbing, hacking, clutching Denver defense. He was a big-game player. Again.

This was huge for the Lakers. They won despite playing a game that favored the Nuggets on several levels.

The question now is, “Can the Lakers slow the tempo, coax the officials into cutting down on the banging and make this into a semi-slow finesse sort of series?” If they can, they absolutely can win the series.

If they cannot, if every game in the series is like this one, I don’t know that the Lakers have the grit and energy to beat the Nuggets four times.

For one night, though, they won at the Nuggets’ game, and it was both satisfying … and for Lakers fans, a little scary.