Lakers’ struggles continue against Nuggets in home loss
LOS ANGELES — New coach.
New coaching staff.
Similar roster and personnel.
And for the Lakers, a very familiar result in another matchup against the Denver Nuggets, a 127-102 loss on Saturday night.
There was acknowledgment of the Lakers’ recent ugly history with the Nuggets, losing 12 of the previous 13 matchups between the teams entering Saturday, including being eliminated from the playoffs by Denver the last two seasons.
There was optimism that Saturday would be a different story.
It wasn’t for the Lakers, who dropped to 10-6 on the season and suffered their second consecutive home loss after winning their first seven games at Crypto.com Arena to open the season.
“We were in a good rhythm and then we kind of relaxed for some reason,” said forward Rui Hachimura, who had 10 points in his return from a four-game absence because of a sprained left ankle. “And the third quarter, they just played harder. And we didn’t fight back. That was the game.”
The Nuggets (9-6), playing on the second night of a back-to-back after losing to the Dallas Mavericks on Friday night in Colorado, outscored the Lakers 70-39 in the second half, including 37-15 in the third quarter.
“Schematically, certainly we’ll have to review some stuff,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said. “Clearly, the spirit to compete just wasn’t there.”
Nuggets star Nikola Jokić, as he typically has against the Lakers, dominated, finishing with 34 points (12-of-20 shooting), 13 rebounds and eight assists.
Anthony Davis didn’t match Jokić’s physicality or production, finishing with 14 points on 6-of-19 shooting to go with 10 rebounds, three assists, three steals and two blocked shots.
LeBron James (18 points on 7-of-17 shooting, seven assists, six rebounds) struggled with ball security, recording six of the Lakers’ 15 giveaways. James, who didn’t speak with reporters after the game, has struggled with giveaways recently, averaging 5.5 turnovers over the last six games.
“They’re a team that has a lot of defenders with active hands and they were shocking him, the quick blitz in some of those pick-and-rolls,” Redick said. “But they’re a handsy team and they get deflections. Sometimes high-usage players can go through stretches where they do have high turnover games and you have to live with that.”
As the Lakers have spoken about numerous times through the first month of the season, it was their transition defense that let them down.
The Nuggets scored 31 points off the Lakers’ turnovers and 26 fast-break points, neutralizing the Lakers’ 27 fast-break points and 18 takeaways for 18 points.
Austin Reaves finished with 19 points (7-of-13 shooting) and six assists, while Max Christie scored 12 points off the bench in 17 minutes.
But their contributions weren’t enough to overcome a third quarter that the Nuggets dominated, helping Denver turn a six-point deficit at halftime (63-57) into a 16-point lead (94-78).
“We were giving up a lot of backdoors that we weren’t giving up in the first half,” Davis said. “They were going back to a zone, set defense that we just weren’t comfortable in.”
The Nuggets opened the fourth on a 9-2 run, giving Denver a 23-point lead.
The Lakers cut the deficit to 16 but didn’t get any closer. Former Laker Russell Westbrook hit a 3-pointer to give the Nuggets a 26-point lead (116-90) with 4:23 left, with Redick pulling his rotation players after calling a timeout.
With the Nuggets dominating the Lakers over the last couple of years, now having won 13 of the last 14 matchups, multiple Lakers were asked whether the recent history created any mental hurdles when the Nuggets were making their run.
Redick pushed back against the notion.
“I have a pretty clear idea of what happened in the third,” Redick said. “But whatever it was, it was not because we were haunted of the ghosts of the past or something like that. It was kind of obvious to me what happened there. Just not the right spirit.”
Reaves agreed with Redick.
“Last year’s last year,” he said. “The year before, it’s so long ago … [Saturday] they beat the [expletive] out of us.”
Michael Porter Jr., who’s shot well against the Lakers in recent history, had 24 points on 10-of-15 shooting to go with 11 rebounds and four assists. Westbrook finished with 14 points, 11 assists and seven rebounds. Despite playing on the second night of a back-to-back and traveling, Denver still had the legs to shoot 16 for 32 from 3-point range.
The Lakers will get a couple of days off before traveling to Phoenix for an NBA Cup Group Play matchup against the Suns on Tuesday, the first night of a back-to-back with a road game against the Spurs in San Antonio on Wednesday.