The Los Angeles Lakers’ schedule has entered a tough stretch, beginning with Thursday night’s matchup with the Denver Nuggets at Ball Arena.
If the Lakers want to be taken seriously as contenders then they need to beat some quality teams during this stretch, but that didn’t happen in this one as they battled but came up short in a 120-113 loss.
It wasn’t a great start for the Lakers as the Nuggets scored the first 11 points of the game, nine of which were by Jamal Murray. After a much-needed timeout, Luka Doncic got to the free throw line to get the Lakers on the board and then LeBron James had a driving layup.
The Lakers started to get going from there as Doncic found James for an alley-oop and then Rui Hachimura connected from deep on his first shot attempt of the night.
On the Denver side, Tim Hardaway Jr. came off the bench and made his first two triples and a midrange to give his team a 32-22 lead at the end of the first quarter. James ended the first quarter with his third field goal of the night, passing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the most in NBA history.
Murray got hot again to begin the second, stretching the Nuggets lead to 15. At that point, the Lakers started to play some defense and got out in transition with James finishing back-to-back layups.
Jaxson Hayes was making a big impact for the Lakers, finishing everything inside to continue to cut into the deficit. After back-to-back midrange buckets by Doncic, L.A. was back within three.
Unfortunately though, the Nuggets responded with a run of their own to immediately get their lead back to double digits. It’s unclear what he said, but Doncic picked up a technical foul during that stretch. That gives him 15 for the season, which is one away from a one-game suspension.
The Nuggets were unconscious from deep to end the first half, giving them a 64-54 lead going into the locker room.
Deandre Ayton only played five minutes in the first quarter and was ruled out at halftime due to a knee injury. That meant the Lakers had to role with Hayes and small-ball for the rest of the night.
Austin Reaves got going offensively early in the third quarter and then Hachimura hit another 3 to get the deficit back to single digits. Smart then got in on the action from deep and Reaves had a layup to cut it to four.
Denver responded with yet another run of their own, but Doncic hit a circus 3 to end the third quarter so the score was 93-86 going into the fourth.
Hardaway ripped off five straight points to begin the fourth quarter, but then James took matters into his own hands by creating good looks for himself and his teammates to quickly get it back down to a five-point game.
The game remained close heading into the final minutes, but James hit his left elbow after falling and needed to come out of the game before eventually returning.
The Lakers got all the way within one, but Smart missed two open looks down the stretch. The Nuggets, on the other hand, got a pair of clutch buckets from Jokic to put the game away.
What’s next for the Lakers…
The Lakers will now return home and host the Indiana Pacers in the second night of a back-to-back on Friday and then a matinee matchup with the New York Knicks on Sunday.
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