Lakers News: Scrappy, Injury-Depleted LA Falls To Deeper, Healthier Denver 122-109
Your Los Angeles Lakers -- well, what was left of them, anyway -- never had much of a prayer tonight against a tall, deep Denver Nuggets club that was more or less healthy.
But that didn't stop LA from embracing its next-man-up ethos with pride and fighting like heck, even when faced with pretty much insurmountable odds.
Head coach Darvin Ham employed his 22nd different starting five lineup tonight, promoting 19-year-old rookie shooting guard Max Christie to a pint-sized LA's starting small forward spot, thanks in part to the absences of (deep breath) LeBron James, Lonnie Walker IV, Austin Reaves, Troy Brown Jr. on the wing (James technically plays power forward, but he spends a lot of time doing wing things, so I'm counting him here).
The 6'6" Christie joined 6'2" point guard Dennis Schröder, 6'1" shooting guard Patrick Beverley, 6'6" power forward Juan Toscano-Anderson, and 6'10" Thomas Bryant to form a truly overmatched first five. Denver trotted out these behemoths: 6'5" Jamal Murray and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope at point guard and shooting guard, respectively, 6'10" Michael Porter Jr. at small forward, 6'8", 235-pound immovable object Aaron Gordon at power forward, and 6'11", 284-pound star of the show Nikola Jokic at center.
Accordingly, the Nuggets got out to a 22-13 start, thanks in part to LA coughing up the ball three times amidst a 10-0 Nuggets run. Though Los Angeles would narrow its gap to 29-23 at the end of the game's first quarter, its two best guards, Schröder and reserve Russell Westbrook, were having a rough go of it on offense, shooting a combined 1-of-8 from the floor.
Size does matter when it comes to basketball, a fact that Denver enjoyed showcasing even in its passing game. Look at the trees up there!
LA's injury report grew just a bit longer when the team's best remaining perimeter defender (at least by reputation), Beverley, exited the game for good with a right hip injury later in the first half. This may have been something of a blessing in disguise, as Pat Bev is having a career-worst season on offense while playing out of position in Ham's offense.
Denver led by 13 at the break, 61-48.
It's unclear what kind of epic Al Pacino motivational speech Ham laid on the Lakers during the halftime break, but it sparked a 12-7 start to shave Denver's advantage to just nine, 69-60, midway through the frame. Little-used reserve guard Kendrick Nunn started in the stead of Beverley at the top of the second half, and enjoyed one of his better (albeit meaningless) scoring nights in his entire Lakers career.
The Lakers' size disadvantage was exposed badly tonight, as the Nuggets took especially sadistic delight in rejecting a bunch of smaller Lakers players around the rim:
The Nuggets concluded the third quarter on a 16-6 run, capped off by this spectacular sprinting Bruce Brown buzzer beating scoop shot (note how this sequence was kicked off by, you guessed it, yet another block of a hapless Laker):
With Murray (24 points), Brown (15 points), and Jokic (12 points, 13 assists, nine rebounds)) leading the way, Denver was up by 15, 94-79, heading into the game's final frame.
A Jamal Murray fastbreak lay-in helped Denver eke out its biggest lead yet, a 20-point advantage, early in the fourth quarter. Los Angeles never quite managed to get within single digits of the Nuggets again the rest of the way. The final margin: 122-109, snapping LA's win streak at five.
Again, given all the absent Lakers (we didn't even mention Anthony Davis, who's been out since December 16th), this was always going to be the result anyway. LA was a double-digit underdog in Vegas. And some Lakers put up a valiant fight, Kendrick Nunn's pressure-free stat-padding excluded.
Westbrook scored 25 points on 10-of-21 shooting from the floor, pulled down seven rebounds and dished out seven dimes in 30:51. Bryant had a 17-point, 10-rebound double-double, and dropped a hammer on Denver defenders' heads a few different times:
Christie (an NBA career-most 14 points on 6-of-8 shooting) and fellow rookie Cole Swider, a two-way signing, both had nice nights when given extra run. Swider shot 2-of-5 from deep for six points (he attempted just one non-triple).
Now to the grisly stats: Nikola nabbed his 87th career triple double, putting him just 18 behind LeBron James on the all-time leaderboard. He took just five shots from the floor for Denver tonight, making all five, and shot (and made) three free throws for a fairly modest 14 points, along with 16 dimes, 11 rebounds, one steal, and a block. Just another day in the life of one of the NBA's elites.
Murray scored a season-high 34 points on 13-of-29 shooting (5-of-9 from three). Four other Nuggets scored in double figures for a balanced attack. Denver enjoyed massive advantages in rebounding (61-51), assists (29-20), three point takes and makes (15-of-42 for the Nuggets, 8-of-28 for the Lakers, translating to a 21-point difference in triples alone), and fastbreak points (21-11). Surprisingly (mostly thanks to Westbrook and Nunn), Los Angeles far outpaced Denver in bench scoring, 59-37.
In securing their 11th straight home win tonight, the Nuggets improved their record to 27-13. LA fell to a 19-22 mark on the season, making it the West's 12th seed.
The Lakers will have three days to get healthier before their next matchup Thursday, a rematch against Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks, who flattened them (with LeBron James available) on Christmas Day.
