Lakers Game Observations: Game 62 vs Nuggets
Close again, but still not enough
Unlike previous games against the league’s best teams, where the Lakers often looked uncompetitive for most of the night, this time it lasted only about five minutes at the start. They fought well for the rest of the game and even made a late push, but still fell 120–113 to the Denver Nuggets.
At this stage of the season, when the Lakers need to make a push in the standings, there are no moral victories. But a positive takeaway from this game is that the Lakers made several comeback runs and looked competitive against a very good team.
At the end of the day, results matter most, and the Lakers dropped a game and a half behind Denver in the standings.
Today’s notes:
A relaxed start put the Lakers in catch-up mode all night
Dončić vs Jokić: perpetual chess in 4-on-3 basketball (🎞️VIDEO)
Shotmaking not at the level needed to outscore the NBA’s best offense (🎞️VIDEO)
Scrappy effort rattles Jokić into an uncharacteristic high-turnover game (🎞️VIDEO)
Lakers’ free-throw rate continues to decline 📉
1-A relaxed start put the Lakers in catch-up mode all night
The Lakers opened this game like it was still warmups, and Jamal Murray jumped on them early. Austin Reaves was late on a switch on the first ATO play and fouled Murray on a three-point attempt. Marcus Smart and Deandre Ayton repeated the same mistake a couple of possessions later, and Murray swished a wing three.
Ayton then missed a bunny in the paint, followed by Dončić and Ayton being out of sync on a pass on the roll. Murray capped the stretch by hitting another contested three over Dončić.
Timeout, JJ Redick. Nuggets 11, Lakers 0.
Ayton and Dončić had another mishap on a lob pass, followed by a couple of bad defensive possessions.
Another timeout. Denver led 16–3.
Ayton then left the game with a knee injury, Jaxson Hayes entered for him, and the Lakers finally started playing. Without Ayton, and with Maxi Kleber missing his second consecutive game, the Lakers battled hard for the rest of the night, playing a lot of small ball while trying to catch up against Nikola Jokić and the Nuggets.
They got as close as one point with two minutes left, but that early 13-point hole significantly reduced their margin for error. The Lakers needed a high-level scoring game, but only produced an OK one, which wasn’t enough despite all the effort.
