Nothing similar is remembered. The great history of the Lakers does not support the mediocrity of not having won any of their first four NBA games. Despite the rumours, nothing was done from the offices during the summer to reverse a situation that seemed foreseeable. This template can’t stand it and LeBron James and Anthony Davis aren’t capable of holding it all. In the last loss against the Denver Nuggets the problems were the usual ones, and that this time there was no Russell Westbrook, due to a sore hamstring, to unsettle the staff.
In the Nuggets, how could it be otherwise, the Serbian Nikola Jokic shone. The current MVP would end up close to the triple-double contributing 31 points, 13 rebounds and 9 assists to the final victory of the Nuggets by 110-99. It was the 85th game of his career in which he ended up being the best of both teams in those three statistical plots.
On the part of the Angelenos, Anthony Davis led the statistics with 22 points and 14 rebounds, and a LeBron James who would finish with 19 points, 7 rebounds and 9 assists.
Westbrook’s absence came just as there was more talk of a tactical move by Darvin Ham in the rotation that would see him start games off the bench. After his bad start to the course, the morbidity was to see if the Lakers could make their debut without him.
It was not like that, and the Angelenos suffered from the same as in the previous three games, a very poor percentage from the triple (26.7% in the Ball Arena) and a general collapse of the team in the second half. An Anthony Davis stood out in the Lakers who went into the break with 16 points and took many advantages in the paint, both in individual actions and in interior balls that came from his teammates, LeBron finished the first half with six assists and became his best partner.
Denver always sent in the light, but with problems to take off on the scoreboard in the first half, they never managed to leave by more than ten points. The takeoff of the Nuggets began from the beginning of the third quarter, with a 12-4 run that also left the worrying image of Anthony Davis putting his hand behind his back. He was able to continue playing, but he was never the same and only scored six more points in the rest of the match.
The decline of the Lakers coincided with the inspiration of Nikola Jokic. Thus, a maximum of 18 points was reached in favor of the locals that could never be recovered. This win marks Denver’s third win in five games and is level with Minnesota and San Antonio in the Western Conference Play-In zone. The Lakers, for their part, are today one of the only three teams that still do not know the victory along with Sacramento Kings and Orlando Magic.
