A spectacular Luka Doncic, assuming responsibility without LeBron James, awarded a comfortable victory to Los Angeles Lakers against some Denver Nuggets who, without Nikola Jokic or Jamal Murray in their ranks, fell for 120-108.
This was an important and direct confrontation for the third place in the West, which is now of the Lakers (43-25) although they are tied with the Nuggets (44-26). Not far from both of the Houston Rockets (45-25), which are seconds of that conference after eight consecutive wins. The Lakers have won their last three games while waiting for LeBron’s return from his injury.
Serbian Jokic and Canadian Murray were the great absences of this face to face that was already unbalanced
Just five days after that bitter encounter that ended with victory for Denver at home despite the fact that the Lakers stroked the bell with numerous casualties, Michael Malone’s team attended the rival field without having their greatest figures: the Serbian Jokic and Canadian Murray were the great absences of this face that was already unbalanced.
The Lakers signed an extraordinary first period finishing with 46 points, which meant the greatest number of points that the team has scored in any room this season. Those of purple and gold brought nine triples, also matching the largest number of triples in a room in the history of the franchise, in addition to hitting 69.6 % of the field shots.
Much of the fault of that spectacular first chapter that ended with 46-29 was Doncic, which with 21 points and 3 assists was outlined to overcome its maximum annotation in the Angelino team (45 points last week against the Milwaukee Bucks) although the personal record was resisted as the game advanced.
The second half began without the Slovenian on the track, with the trust up between the ranks the Lakers who dominated at all times the match.
To the break they went with a 73-59 after a Mate of Peyton Watson that squeezed the nuts to the locals on the way to the changing rooms. However, the Lakers knew how to take advantage of the third period to take the flight and reach a +30 in the first bars of the last quarter.
Without maiden playing the fourth period, those of JJ Redick allowed themselves to be carried away, trusting in Reaves (the best Balkan partner with 22 points and 8 assists) and in the love that Bronny James awakens among the public to keep up the mood of the Californians to the final whistle.
Denver surprised the Golden State Warriors without Jokic and Murray on Monday but could not repeat the feat in Los Angeles. Aaron Gordon was the best with 26 points and 11 rebounds.
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