A little bit of the luster is gone from Tuesday's game, but the importance and excitement is still there when the two best teams in the Western Conference face each other in an early-season matchup. It's not the Houston Rockets and Golden State Warriors going at it but the Los Angeles Lakers and the Nuggets battling in Denver in what could hold plenty of meaning in April. The Lakers are 2 1/2 games ahead of the Nuggets in the race for the best record in the West, but have played three more games.