The reeling Los Angeles Lakers (21-22) suffered their worst loss of the 2021-22 NBA season on Saturday night, falling 133-96 to the short-handed Denver Nuggets (22-19) at Ball Arena.
The Nuggets score marked the Lakers' largest margin of defeat in nearly three years — you have to go back to Feb. 5, 2019, when the Lakers were trounced by 42 points by the Indiana Pacers, which remains the biggest margin of defeat of LeBron James' career.
There were no silver linings from this showing. The Lakers had two days off following a meek defeat to the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday, which came three days after the Lakers were thumped at home by the Memphis Grizzlies.
Here are three reasons that led to the Lakers' disprited demise in Denver.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/1TPm3OFftbac33PA5zzf8R?si=90796f3852004cad
1) Defensive effort
The Lakers have surrendered an average of 123.4 points over their past five games. They put up little resistance at Mile High, enabling the Nuggets to catch fire early and often. Denver's role players began to hoist with confident abandon, led by rookie Bones Hyland (27 points, 8-of-15 FG, 6-10 from 3) and veteran Jeff Green (26 points, 10-of-14 FG).
Overall, Denver shot 51.6% from the field, and 57.5% (23-of-40) from deep. The Lakers only forced six turnovers and were outrebounded by 10.
“I'm disappointed losing like this,” Dwight Howard said. “The conversation about playing better defense, we shouldn't have to have that conversation. We should all be tired of hearing it and make a difference. … It shouldn't keep coming up.”
The Nuggets outscored the Lakers in transition, 23-9.
“Teams are just playing harder than us,” Russell Westbrook said. “Simple as that.”
2) Nikola Jokic
The Lakers' primary defensive challenge for the evening was containing the league's reigning MVP. This was a tall order without many (healthy or good) tall players, so the presently small-ball Lakers moved Dwight Howard back into the starting lineup.
It worked at first — Dwight was the Lakers' most effective player in the first quarter (11 points). Predictably, it proved untenable. Jokic started personally roasting Howard in the second quarter and began finding open teammates or scoring himself on seemingly every possession.
By midway through the third period, Jokic had a triple-double, the Nuggets had blown the game open, and Howard was benched for DeAndre Jordan (an ill-advised, early shot-clock three-point attempt probably didn't elate Frank Vogel.)
Joker finished with 17 points, 12 rebounds, and 13 assists.
Moral of the story: the Lakers need Anthony Davis back, ASAP.
3) Lakers wings didn't show up
For the Lakers to win games, they typically need at least one — often more — of their wings to buoy LeBron James (and, Russell Westbrook, I guess.) That didn't happen in Denver.
LeBron had 25 points, though his jumper was off (9-of-23). Westbrook scored 19 points on 7-of-15 shooting.
Beyond that, Los Angeles got very little from the supporting cast. Malik Monk (4 points in 25 minutes) has cooled off, Avery Bradley (3 points in 20 minutes) was a non-factor on both ends, as was Talen Horton-Tucker (3 points. 1-of-5 FG), Austin Reaves (5 points, 1-of-5 FG), and Wayne Ellington (3 points in 15 minutes). Trevor Ariza and Stanley Johnson combined for 11 points.
The Lakers are now 6-15 against teams currently in the top-10 in their respective conference.
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