DENVER — Lakers coach JJ Redick typically makes reference to a lyric from an outdated Jay-Z tune: “It was all good just a week ago.”
Getting into Friday’s sport towards the Denver Nuggets, issues weren’t good for the Lakers. They entered on a three-game shedding streak. They had been down three starters in LeBron James, Rui Hachimura and Jaxson Hayes. A fourth, Luka Doncic, was sitting out on the second evening of a back-to-back. Two extra key rotation gamers, Dorian Finney-Smith and Gabe Vincent, additionally had been unavailable as they managed long-term accidents.
Every week in the past, the Lakers had been largely wholesome, flying to Boston on an eight-game successful streak. Every week in the past, they had been climbing up the standings, not sliding.
However even when the personnel didn’t mirror the Lakers from per week in the past, at the least the vitality did Friday, the workforce pushing the Denver Nuggets over 4 quarters earlier than making one too many errors in a 131-126 loss.
Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic ran a pick-and-roll, opening Murray up for a clear take a look at a three-pointer with 5.6 seconds left. Like he has so many instances towards the Lakers, the Nuggets level guard hit the massive shot.
Austin Reaves, who capped his rookie season with a 31-point triple-double in Denver, almost led the Lakers (40-25) to the upset, scoring 37 together with 13 assists and eight rebounds. Dalton Knecht, beginning close to his hometown, had his most factors since mid-November with 32 and Shake Milton scored 16 off the bench.
However all 5 starters completed in double figures for Denver (43-24), the Lakers working out of time as a lot as they ran out of steam.
The Lakers had an opportunity to pressure extra time, however they couldn’t get the inbound go to Reaves, with Russell Westbrook getting the steal and dunking within the last seconds.
Earlier than the sport, Redick once more sounded optimistic in regards to the Lakers’ getting extra assist over the subsequent week, when the workforce performs 5 video games in Los Angeles, together with a pair of back-to-backs Sunday and Monday and Wednesday and Thursday to wrap a stretch the place they’ll play six instances in eight days.
They’re the primary workforce since 2022 to have six video games in eight days, the Lakers taking part in a make-up sport with the San Antonio Spurs that was postponed in the course of the wildfires in January.
