Shoulders slouched. Arms crossed loosely over the "Beat L.A." logo on his powder-blue T-shirt. Face drained of expression. Eyes staring blankly at the court.

He's 14 years old and has followed the Denver Nuggets his whole life, since when the Nuggets could barely crack double-digit wins in a season.

He never knew Basketball could bum you out like this.

"You could just tell before halftime that the Nuggets were really flat and weren't playing defense," he said.

And still.

"It was disappointing that they lost this series, but it was a big step for the Nuggets ."

Cinderella tripped over her party dress Friday night, and that gal who always gets the guy stepped right over her.

It was a loss that was all the more crushing for Nuggets fans because this was the first season where they could truly believe their team might upset the titan and win the title. Going further in the NBA playoffs than any other Nuggets team has ever gone only reminds you more of what's left to accomplish.

"I can't believe this," Anthony Recce said as he watched the Los Angeles Lakers' lead late in the fourth quarter climb to 20. "What a whuppin'."

The mood was so much different just a few hours before.

As fans filed into the arena, there was an overarching seriousness, a sort of stoic focus on willing the team to victory.

How seriously did Nuggets fans take preparation for the biggest game in franchise history?

Well, Dasan Martinez - a 9-year-old live wire of fandemonium - sat still for an hour while he had his hair dyed and hairsprayed and yanked into about 25 sharp, blue spikes, giving him the look of a blowfish in full puff.

Yeah, Dasan came prepared.

"It was hard; it hurt my head, all that pulling and tugging," he said heading into the arena, after having Birdman wings painted onto his face. "But I had to do it. I'm the biggest Nuggets fan. I love my Nuggets ."

"I'm their luck charm," he grinned.

To most fans, a loss just didn't seem possible - at least not that they were admitting.

"Nah, not here," Patrick Borrego Jr. said. "Not in our house."

Which made the presence of all those Lakers fans that much more annoying. Everywhere you turned your head, there was some dude in a purple-and-gold jersey.

Sauntering into the arena. In the concession line. On the escalator.

"You guys realize you're wearing purple, right? Purple!" a Nuggets fan taunted.

"You guys," the Lakers fan sneered back, "are wearing powder blue. What is that?"

"You'd never walk into Invesco Field wearing anything but Broncos colors," Kerry Lesoing, shaking his head, said from his seat in the last row of the arena. "Maybe they feel more confident here."

Ah, not exactly.

Gary Kevorkian, barely three hours off his plane from Los Angeles and decked out in Lakers regalia, said he wasn't so sure how his team would do. But - with a typical SoCal nonchalantness - what did he care? The Lakers would still have another shot. It was the Nuggets fans clinging to their postseason life.

"It's more like going to a party," Kevorkian said, "and there happens to be a Basketball game going on."

With the Nuggets trailing by 13 at halftime and their postseason hopes wheezing, the Nuggets fans upped the effort. Louder cheers for made shots. Much louder boos when Kobe Bryant touched the ball.

The fanatics in the Melo's Yellows section of the arena stood and cheered nonstop, even during timeouts.

"The Nuggets have terrific fans and great fan loyalty," Gov. Bill Ritter, watching the game from a first-level suite, said at the half. "They're just believers."

"I'm not worried," Brian Shinn, sitting in the lower bowl, said. "We've got to get them going, though."

It wasn't to be.

Midway through the fourth quarter and with the Lakers' lead growing, fans began heading to the exits. Those who stayed rose to their feet and cheered in the last minute of play, as the clock ate away at Denver's May Madness.

"I think it was a good try," Amy Milacek said.

She and Jake Ryan drove from Omaha to watch the game because their TV just wasn't doing this postseason run justice.

"They gave a great effort," Ryan said of the Nuggets . "They just came up short this year."

Indeed, even before the sweat dried on the hardwoods, some fans had already begun thinking less about this loss and more about the many, many losses the Nuggets suffered per season just a few years ago.

Alec Revelle, Garrett's dad, remembers when they came to nearly empty games at the arena and would get moved to courtside seats just because they were wearing Nuggets gear.

"We were here when they were gawd awful," he said. "It's a long way since then."

John Ingold: 303-954-1068

or jingold@denverpost.com