Friday night was expected to be a schedule loss for the Los Angeles Lakers as they took on the Denver Nuggets to close out their road trip in the second night of a back-to-back in the midst of the roughest part of their schedule.
The Lakers were without six key players as LeBron James, Luka Doncic, Rui Hachimura, Jaxson Hayes, Dorian Finney-Smith and Gabe Vincent all were unable to play due to injuries.
Despite all that though, the Lakers gave the Nuggets a fight and were in it until the very end before Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray and Co. pulled away from a 131-126 victory.
After the loss, Lakers head coach JJ Redick expressed how proud he was of how hard the Lakers fought despite missing so many key players, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“I’m proud of the group for their level of fight and resiliency, particularly not getting off to a great start there in the second half. Our transition defense was pretty bad from the first six minutes on. And then fighting back and taking a lead. There’s a lot we could’ve done better but the group competed tonight and gave ourselves a chance to win… Just very, very proud of their fight and the way they started the game and the resiliency they showed to get back in the game.”
Redick added that the Lakers’ spirit and energy were great, giving credit to guys who usually aren’t in the rotation for stepping up:
“The spirit was great. I think it’s been that and will continue to be that. I think it was a good opportunity for a number of guys to play bigger minutes. Shake (Milton), in particular, Christian (Koloko) defensively in the second half was awesome. Happy for those guys that they played well.”
While it was a great effort from the Lakers, they ultimately came up short and now head home after an 0-4 road trip. Things don’t get any easier from here for Redick’s squad, but hopefully some of their injured players will be back in the lineup as soon as possible.
JJ Redick says injured players are all day-to-day
It does appear that reinforcements are on the way for the Lakers as JJ Redick recently revealed that LeBron James, Rui Hachimura and Jaxson Hayes are all considered day-to-day moving forward.
The Lakers have really struggled without their starting frontcourt and need all of their key guys healthy if they are gonna make any noise to finish out the season.
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