RECAP: LeBron Makes History as Lakers Fall to Nuggets, 120-113
The Lakers entered last night’s matchup against the Nuggets on a 3-game winning streak against the Warriors, Kings, and Pelicans.
Despite a shaky start in the first quarter, the Lakers competed hard the rest of the way, but it wasn’t enough.
The Lakers and Nuggets came into this game both struggling to find any sort of consistency over the last several weeks. Denver has dealt with numerous injuries and was without Aaron Gordon, Cam Johnson, and Peyton Watson. Maxi Kleber was out for L.A., and DeAndre Ayton exited early in the first quarter due to a left leg injury.
The Nuggets started the game 11-0, scoring from anywhere they wanted. Once the Lakers got on the board, they themselves had no issues scoring. When looking at the stat sheet, the Lakers were close to or surpassed the Nuggets in all but one major category, free throws. The Nuggets shot 31 free throws to the Lakers’ 15. L.A. shot 67% from the line while Denver shot 90%.
Both teams, however, shot 52% from the field. Denver went 14-31 from three, and L.A. went 13-31. The Lakers, who’ve struggled with turnovers this season, only had 10 turnovers compared to Denver’s 18, 9 of them from Jokic alone. The Nuggets did, however, outrebound the Lakers 41-32.
Help From the Bench
The Lakers got a ton of help from their bench unit and remained a big reason why they were able to cut the lead to within 1 late in the 4th. Rui Hachimura had 16 points on 4-5 shots from downtown. Jaxson Hayes had one of his best games of the season with 19 points on 8-10 FG and 5 rebounds in 27 minutes.
Luka led the team with 27 points, 11 rebounds, 7 assists, and 4 steals. LeBron and Austin each provided 16 points. James had 8 assists and 5 rebounds on 7-11 FGs, and Reaves had 7 assists and 5 rebounds on 6-11 FGs.
In the matchup, LeBron James made history yet again and passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s record of 15,837 field goals made, and is now the league’s all-time field goal leader. James is now the all-time leader in both points and field goals made and is also 6 games away from passing Robert Parish’s all-time NBA record of 1,611 games played.
With 20 games left to go in the regular season, the Lakers are still within striking distance in their pursuit of the 3rd seed in the West.
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