Lakers hold on to beat the Nuggets, snapping a three-game losing streak.
The Lakers came out with a much-needed win tonight after coming off a huge loss to the Raptors last night, snapping a three-game losing streak with tonight’s 93–89 victory over the Denver Nuggets. With tonight’s win, the Lakers stay alive in that 5th place spot in the Western Conference with their record moving to 37–28 after tonight’s win.
The Lakers allowed the least amount of points in a victory in tonight’s win over the Nuggets with 89 points, the second-lowest Denver has scored all season. Early on in tonight’s matchup, the Lakers defensively made MVP candidate Nikola Jokic work, putting him in foul trouble early on and creating a nice game plan to smother him in key situations. In 35 minutes, Jokic finished 32 points and 9 rebounds on 12 of 28 (42.8%) shooting from the field.
The player of tonight’s Lakers win is a man who professionally accepted his new role with the addition of Andre Drummond and his name is Marc Gasol. Gasol had the most impactful performance in the least amount of playing time tonight, giving the Lakers huge energy off the bench. In 17 minutes of action, Gasol finished with 10 points and 7 rebounds on 3 of 4 shooting from both the field and the perimeter. In Marc Gasol’s limited impactful action tonight, he finished with a game-high plus/minus of +17, +10 more than any other player tonight. Gasol spoke of focusing more on the team rather than individual situations saying:
“The team’s success is everyone’s success. We have to kind of forget about the players, situations, and individual guys as a whole and think about who we’re going to be as a team.”
Anthony Davis was a huge part of tonight’s Lakers win over the Nuggets, giving this team an all-star performance on both ends of the floor tonight. During the final seconds of the game, Davis put the exclamation point on the win with an amazing defensive block on Nuggets Facundo Campazzo. In 33 minutes of action, Davis finished with 25 points, 7 rebounds, and 3 blocks, going 9 for 19 (47.3%) from the field and 1 for 2 (50%) from the three. Head coach Frank Vogel spoke on Anthony Davis’ performance tonight:
“I thought this was the first game since he’s been back that he’s been really, really decisive.”
Despite committing 20 turnovers on the night the Lakers were able to survive a much-needed win due to the energy on the defensive end. The Lakers forced Denver to shoot 25% from deep, their 3rd lowest of the season. The Nuggets tied their season-low of made threes in tonight’s game, finishing with 6.
20-year-old Talen Horton-Tucker had one of the most confusing clutch moments in tonight’s win after missing a circus lay-up and rebounding and reversing it back in to give the Lakers a nice lead to seal the win for the Lakers. In Horton-Tucker’s 20 minutes of play, he finished with 10 points and 3 assists on 4 of 7 shooting from the field.
Wes Matthews was able to bounce back and have a solid game for the purple and gold after not playing since April 24th against the Mavs. In 16 minutes off the bench, Matthews finished with 8 points on 2 for 2 from downtown and 3 for 3 total from the field.
The status of LeBron James’ return is still in the air with 7 games left in the season, the Lakers remaining games are all must-wins to avoid the play-in round of the playoffs. After tonight’s performance, the Lakers have to re-evaluate the minutes of Marc Gasol moving forward. When he plays, good things happen and tonight he showed how impactful he can be. Lakers head coach Frank Vogel spoke about Gasol deflecting credit and accepting his role for this team:
“Marc Gasol is a winner, that type of commitment, sacrifice, and whatever the team needs attitude is what is necessary to win a championship.”
The Lakers will travel on the road for another back-to-back this Thursday and Friday against the rival Clippers and Portland Trail Blazers. Between this coming Thursday and next Wednesday, the Lakers will have played 5 games in 7 days, showing more on how compacted the scheduling has been from the NBA and commissioner Adam Silver.