The Los Angeles Lakers opened up the 2023-24 regular season on Tuesday night, taking on the defending champion Denver Nuggets in a Western Conference Finals rematch.
However, the Lakers didn’t get the start they were hoping for as they lost to the Nuggets, 119-107.
Both teams got off to a hot start as they knocked down their first several shots, but Taurean Prince’s back-to-back 3s gave the Lakers an early 10-7 lead. LeBron James was able to get downhill for a couple of layups, but the Nuggets’ offensive efficiency put them up 20-16 halfway through the first.
Nikola Jokic was a menace in the paint early as he came up with two offensive rebounds and a few more shots right at the rim to increase the Denver lead to double digits. D’Angelo Russell had a great two-way sequence with a steal and score, but Los Angeles went into the second trailing 34-20.
The Nuggets’ hot outside shooting continued to start the second quarter as they nailed a couple of 3-pointers, but James slowed the momentum down with another tough drive. Denver finally started to cool off from the field while Anthony Davis got going, but Los Angeles still found themselves down 47-34 after another Jokic bucket.
The Lakers looked to get Davis going one-on-one against Jokic as they tried to get him into foul trouble. Both Davis and James decided to take over the offense to close the half and the two superstars were able to get the team to a respectable 63-54 halftime deficit.
Austin Reaves kicked off the third with a steal and dunk, while Taurean Prince was the beneficiary of a James outlet pass to get L.A. within five points. Although the Nuggets briefly upped their lead back to double digits, the Lakers were able to fight back and keep them within striking distance.
However, the purple and gold fell back into a lull on both ends of the floor that allowed Denver to wrestle back control. Despite that, James was able to key a late 9-0 run to make it an 87-80 going into the fourth.
James looked to be more aggressive as he scored off a nice feed from Gabe Vincent and drained a 3-pointer to get them within three points. However, as soon as James was subbed out the Nuggets responded with a quick 7-0 run to make it 101-90.
Anytime Los Angeles tried to seize some momentum, Mike Malone called a timeout to settle things down and Denver would respond with a mini run to keep them at bay. The Lakers tried to make a run down the stretch, but the deficit was too much to overcome and they would take home their first loss of the regular season.
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