The Los Angeles Lakers began a season-long eight-game road trip on Tuesday night, traveling to take on the Denver Nuggets.
The Lakers and Nuggets have developed a bit of a rivalry in recent years, but this was their first meeting this season and it lacked star power with Nikola Jokic, Austin Reaves and others out of the lineup. Ultimately, the Lakers came out on top with an impressive comeback victory, winning 115-107 to improve to 26-16 on the season.
Denver has been playing pretty well without Jokic and they came out firing in this one, making their first five shots, including four from deep, to jump out to a 14-6 lead.
Luka Doncic helped settle the Lakers in with 16 quick points on 6-of-6 shooting, although the Nuggets stayed hot by making nine of their first 11 3-point attempts. That included four straight from Spencer Jones as Denver led 37-28 at the end of the first quarter. LeBron James hit a shot at the buzzer to keep it within single digits.
Drew Timme has been getting a look in the Lakers rotation this week and came in and scored seven quick points to begin the second. James then took matters into his own hands, getting fouled on a 3-point attempt and then throwing down a monster dunk.
The Lakers were trying to chip away at their deficit as Doncic continued his scoring barrage when he re-entered the game. The Nuggets closed the half strong, however, taking a 71-57 lead into the halftime locker room after an 8-0 run in the final minute. This time it was Jamal Murray beating the buzzer for his team, hitting a shot from beyond half-court.
Lakers center Deandre Ayton did not come out for the start of the third quarter as he got hit in the face towards the end of the first half and was eventually ruled out with a left eye injury.
L.A. was playing with its best energy in the third quarter though with James and Doncic leading the way offensively. After going down by 16, they ripped off a 13-0 run and went into the fourth quarter with a slim 88-86 deficit.
Timme scored to begin the final quarter as the Lakers came all the way back to tie it. A few minutes later, Doncic hit a pair of free throws to give L.A. its first led of the game.
From there, the Lakers took control as Marcus Smart was making plays on both sides of the ball.
After a triple by Smart put them up double digits, the Nuggets tried to make one last run. James quickly put an end to that with a thunderous dunk though and L.A. went on to close out the win.
What’s next for the Lakers…
While the Lakers’ road trip technically continues, they will actually return home as they have a matchup with the L.A. Clippers at Intuit Dome in Inglewood on Thursday night.
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