The high flight of the Denver Nuggets (14-7) continues against the Los Angeles Lakers (11-9) with a 117:85 blowout (BOXSCORE). The landlords are going in the third quarter and LeBron James is caught on a weak evening. After all, Moritz Wagner was able to enjoy an assignment in Garbage Time.
As in the previous match against the Thunder, Denver had to give up the battered Gary Harris (ankle). Torrey Craig, who had already done an excellent job against Russell Westbrook, moved into the Starting Five.
And even without Harris, the Nuggets got off to a really good start. Thanks to aggressive attacks against the opponent’s zone, the home side took the lead 15-9 early on, but LAL was not disturbed by it. LeBron James and Co. also caused a lot of damage under the basket.
Thus a balanced and entertaining game developed over the complete first half. As soon as the nuggets threatened to set, L.A. fought back. Nevertheless, Denver took a slight advantage and the hosts took the lead with a 58:50 lead.
A small moment of shock occurred towards the end of the second quarter when Lonzo Ball strangely collided with Malik Beasley in the fight for an offensive rebound. He apparently injured his left ankle. Afterwards the Point Guard of the Lakers limped into the cabin and could not return to the floor.
That wasn’t the only bad news for the Lakers. Because after the page change Nikola Jokic caught fire for a short time, with back-to-back triples he quickly brought his colours down to 64:50. The Serb scored 12 points in the third section, which LAL had relatively little to oppose.
Denver, on the other hand, continued to distance himself, the lead was 18 points in the meantime – and at the beginning of the final section the nuggets even increased their lead to 26 points (104:78). That was the decision.
About seven and a half minutes before the end both head coaches took their starters off the floor, time for garbage time. From the German point of view, this was a pleasant circumstance because Moritz Wagner was also allowed to play four minutes before the end. The No.25-Pick of the Lakers put his only three-way attempt at the ring, but also unpacked a very nice assist (1 rebound).
The best scorers for the nuggets were Paul Millsap (11 rebounds) and Jamal Murray with 20 points each. Nikola Jokic contributed 14 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists, while Malik Beasley came off the bench on 20 points (career-high).
Kyle Kuzma (21 points, 9/15 FG, 1/7 three) was the best scorer on the Lakers’ side. Brandon Ingram and LeBron James each scored 14 points, but there was not enough to see of the King. Los Angeles suffered their second consecutive bankruptcy, while Denver celebrated their fourth win in a row.
Denver Nuggets (14-7) vs. Los Angeles Lakers (11-9) 117:85 (BOXSCORE)
Paul Millsap. Not an easy task to pick a star out of the strong team structure of the nuggets, after all Jamal Murray or Nikola Jokic deserve this award. But Millsap set the tone with his aggressiveness from the beginning – with his scoring, defense (2 blocks) and his work under the boards (5 offensive rebounds).
LeBron James. Sometimes the King seemed tired and lethargic in his actions, all in all there wasn’t much to see of him. Although he sent 15 throws on the journey, only 5 attempts were successful. Especially Downtown (0/4 threesome) did not converge much, in addition LeBron also incurred 4 ball losses.
Both the Lakers and the Nuggets miss a real shotblocker under the basket – and both sides took merciless advantage of this fact. In the course of the game, the coaches reacted by simply sending more defenders into the zone, but Denver remained dominant. This was especially noticeable when it came to offensive rebounds. The nuggets grabbed 16 rebounds on the offensive board and used them for numerous second chance points (15:4 DEN).