NBA Playoff Predictions 2012: Los Angeles Lakers, Kobe Bryant Will Advance

The Los Angeles Lakers (3-2) and Denver Nuggets (2-3) will continue their Western Conference first-round series on Thursday night in Game 6 at the Pepsi Center, with the opening tip scheduled for 10:30 ET on TNT.

Los Angeles missed out on an opportunity to move on and start preparing for the Oklahoma City Thunder in the second round, suffering a 102-99 setback as six-point home favorites on Tuesday night, but the Lakers still hold a tremendous edge in this series.

The Lakers have compiled a dominating 33-1 series record when given the opportunity to eliminate a foe at any point during the postseason, which explains why they are -570 favorites to still advance (courtesy of Pinnacle Sports).

Kobe Bryant has to be a bit disappointed in his team's recent effort considering he led all scorers with 43 points in the Game 5 loss. The league's second-leading scorer during the regular season has managed to tally 12 career playoff games with 40-plus points.

Denver has become accustomed to Bryant's exploits in this situation, as four of those 40-point games have come on the Nuggets' watch. However, the Nuggets limited the five-time champion to 22 points in both games played in the Mile High City in this series.

In order to move this series back to Southern California for a winner-take-all affair, the bench that averaged 41.6 points per game during the regular season will need to continue its high production. Center JaVale McGee and point guard Andre Miller led the unit by combining for 45 points last time out.

I'm not going to get involved in playing this particular game with the Nuggets favored by 1.5 points, but I will suggest laying the juice and taking the Lakers to eventually close things out.

Bryant's the ultimate closer.

Pick: Los Angeles Lakers to win the series

Follow on Twitter: @JeffGrantSports