New York:  Centre Andrew Bynum scored 29 points in his first game of the season after serving a suspension as the Los Angeles Lakers came from behind to beat the Denver Nuggets 92-89 on Saturday.

Bynum's lay-up sent the Lakers ahead 91-89 with 1:52 to play as they powered past Denver's five-point fourth-quarter lead.

He had been suspended for the first four games of the shortened NBA season because of a flagrant foul against Dallas in the Western Conference play-offs last season.

Bynum had been originally suspended for five games but that was reduced because of the shortened schedule.

The big man also had 13 rebounds and two blocked shots as new coach Mike Brown's coaching style suited his play.

"They're looking for me a lot and I'm a focal point early in the offence," Bynum said.

But he paid a price in the early going.

"I was winded like crazy today," the out-of-shape Bynum said. "First game — I couldn't breathe in the first six minutes."

But even if he was winded, his domination inside was too much for the Nuggets to handle.

"His power around the basket, we haven't seen it yet," Denver coach George Karl said. "We'll have to make some adjustments on him, there's no question."

Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol each added 17 points for the Lakers, who had started the season with two defeats but have now won three successive games.

Al Harrington led the Nuggets with 21 points.

The Nuggets had an 85-80 lead after Harrington's three-pointer with five minutes to play.

Winning basket

But the Lakers pulled level at 89-89 with two Bryant free throws after Derek Fisher's hustle to save the ball after missing a three-pointer.

Then Bynum blocked Nene Hilario's lay-up attempt and got the winning basket.

Meanwhile, Denver were drawing blanks.

"We get three lay-ups and a couple of free throws in the last three minutes of the game and we miss all of them," Karl said.

"We gave them too much hope, from Bynum and that loose ball from Fisher, and we never got that defensive confidence because we didn't rebound the ball."

New York

Meanwhile, New York Knicks forward Amare Stoudemire was benched for Saturday's NBA game at Sacramento with a left ankle sprain suffered in a loss two days earlier.

Knicks coach Mike D'Antoni said the playmaker's availability will be decided on a day-to-day basis after he was hurt in a 99-82 loss to the Lakers. Stoudemire did not take part in a team workout on Friday.

The Knicks, who began the season with a home victory over Boston, had already been hit with injury setbacks.

Forward Jared Jeffries is out for up to two weeks with a strained right calf and guard Iman Shumpert has a right knee sprain that will sideline him for two to four weeks.

Josh Harrellson was named to replace Stoudemire in the starting line-up against the Kings, the closing game in a west-coast away spell for the Knicks.