The Los Angeles Lakers will face their toughest road game since the All-Star break when they take on the Denver Nuggets Monday night at 9 p.m. ET.

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Following a stretch of 10 losses in 12 games to open 2013, the Lakers (28-29) fell to a season-worst eight games under .500 on Jan. 23.

Los Angeles, though, has stormed back into the Western Conference playoff picture with 11 wins in 15 games, the latest a 103-99 victory at Dallas on Sunday. The win moved the Lakers within 2 1/2 games of idle Houston for the eighth spot in the West.

Bryant enters this contest in a serious groove with 78 points on 28-of-44 (63.6 percent) shooting in his last two games. He had 38 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists against the Mavericks while passing the 31,000-point mark for his career.

Bryant finished with 40 points in Denver on Dec. 26, but the Nuggets scored 69 in the second half en route to a 126-114 victory that began a stretch of eight straight road losses for Los Angeles.

This time, the Lakers hope to prove they're a different team and capture their sixth win in eight road games following the season-worst skid. That doesn't figure to be an easy task against a Denver team that has won 23 of 26 at the Pepsi Center, including eight straight by an average of 12.7 points.

The Nuggets (35-22) had lost four of five -- with each loss coming on the road -- before bouncing back with a 113-99 victory at league-worst Charlotte on Saturday.

Now they're focused on catching Memphis for the No. 4 seed and earning home-court advantage for the first round of the playoffs.

Ty Lawson, who had a team-high 20 points against the Bobcats, has averaged 26.2 while shooting 54.5 percent from the field in his last six games. He had 21 points and 10 assists to lead Denver to a 112-105 win in Los Angeles on Jan. 6.

Danilo Gallinari, however, finished with just six points for the second consecutive game on Saturday while playing through a thigh bruise. The team's leading scorer (16.9 ppg) is considered questionable for Monday.

Gallinari has scored at least 19 in each of the three meetings with Los Angeles this season.

The Nuggets rank near the top of the league in home scoring (108.7), and have averaged 113.7 against the Lakers while allowing that same amount.