Game 2 final: Nuggets 106, Lakers 103.

That’s a game apiece, with Nuggets having taken home-court advantage from the Lakers.

That’s bad enough news for the Lakers. It gets worse.

The Nuggets played the Lakers almost dead even in two games in Los Angeles.

Thus, it appears quite likely the Nuggets can win another game in Staples, if they need to.

What we don’t know is if the Lakers can win in the thin air of Denver.

Have a look at the final box from tonight’s game, and tell me if you recall seeing team totals that were so strikingly similar. Within a tick or two in nearly every team stat.

Game 1 was similarly a close call, 105-103. Only a point different from Game 2.

Thus, unless the Lakers are as competitive in the Nuggets’ house as Denver was in theirs, it’s hard to see them winning this series.

What has been the difference?

–The biggest is at point guard, where Chauncey Billups is a huge advantage for Denver over Derek Fisher or anyone else the Lakers run out there. It was fitting that the Lakers’ last, futile shot tonight was a Fisher airball; he was a disastrous 1-for-9 from the field. Phil Jackson and Mitch Kupchak can’t have thought Fish would carry them through this season, could they? They had to think Jordan Farmar would have stepped up to some level of predictable competence by now. Must have. Because now they are trying to win a championship with a zero at the point. That’s hard. Very hard.

–Another issue for the Lakers is getting scoring production from their front line. The Lakers have rebounded fairly well, but their three front-court starters were just outscored 56-46. And it wasn’t just Carmelo Anthony draining shots. The 16 points from clankmeister Kenyon Martin were critical, as well.

–Kobe Bryant has to work far harder to get decent shots than does Carmelo Anthony. The Nuggets also are more adept at denying Bryant the ball than the Lakers are at denying Anthony. Perhaps because they are so worried about Chauncey Billups — while the Lakers have no one player who can be counted on to score significantly.

Ultimately, these teams were so closely matched in the first two games that the result pivoted on something really basic. Really basic. Free throws.

In Game 1, the Lakers were 20-of-24 from the line. The Nuggets were 23-of-35. Denver couldn’t take advantage of 12 freebies; the Lakers missed only four. The Lakers won by two points.

In Game 2, the Lakers were 27-of-35 and the Nuggets 29-of-37. (Did I already mention how remarkably similar all team stats were?) But the Nuggets made their free throws when it mattered, and the Lakers did not.  The Lakers were 9-for-14 in the fourth quarter; the Nuggets were 13-of-14. That’s plus-four for Denver in a game the Nuggets won by three.

Basically, this is a very close series — after two games in Los Angeles. If Denver benefits from the normal home-court advantage, and plays better at home … this series could be 3-1 in the Nuggets’ favor by Monday night. I expect it, unless something changes. An injury. A long session in the fountain of youth for D-Fish.

What I will give the Lakers is this:  They are giving off no signs of not caring and not playing hard; they were guilty of long sieges of both of those concepts during the previous two series.

So far, they are playing hard. Not necessarily well. But hard. Denver is just good. As good as the Lakers are and, apparently, better, after two games of evidence.

What I find interesting, inside my own head, is that I do not loathe the Nuggets. I don’t even dislike them. These are not the same self-centered punks they were when Iverson played for them. Or even before Iverson played for them. They are a serious, coherent, cohesive team. Maybe Billups gets the responsibility for that. Maybe Billups in tandem with the whole crew finally listening to George Karl. And, yes, Carmelo Anthony blisfully deciding he is as good as Kobe, as good as anyone, and personally canceling out the Lakers’ presumed advantage on the superstar front.

This will go five games. We know that. But much longer? Hmm.