Lakers fall below .500 in embarrassing loss to Nuggets.
Following a nine-point loss to the Grizzlies, the Lakers' struggles continued, dropping their third straight in an embarrassing effort, allowing the largest margin of defeat this season (136), falling to the Nuggets 136–96 to drop their record under .500 at 21–22.
In an embarrassing loss that saw the Lakers give up the most points in a half this season, the Nuggets were clicking on all cylinders on offense, shooting 57% from three on 23 of 40 (one three shy of their franchise-record) shooting from behind the arc, and 52% (47-for-91) overall from the floor.
Lakers head coach Frank Vogel used a lot of phrases like "not good enough" and "back to the drawing board" to describe the Lakers blowout loss in Denver, describing the night, saying: "It's very frustrating."
In another disappointing Laker loss, LeBron was the Lakers leading scorer finishing with 25 points, on 36% (9-for-23) shooting overall, adding 9 rebounds and 2 assists in 30 minutes played.
Russell Westbrook was the Lakers' second-leading scorer on the night, scoring 19 points on 47% (7-for-15) shooting overall, improving his shooting percentage from the floor from his last game, where he shot 14%.
In a loss that had many question their effort, Westbrook gave his opinion on their rough skid, saying: "Sometimes we got to make a decision to play hard, teams are just playing harder than us. Simple as that."
Dwight Howard was the Lakers' only other player to score in double figures, finishing with 13 points in 21 minutes, as he finished 6 for 8 (75%) from the floor.
Howard also voiced the shortcoming on the defensive end and overall effort, saying: “It shouldn’t keep coming up. It’s how bad do we want to win every night. The conversation about playing better defense, we shouldn’t have to have that conversation. We should all be tired of it.”
The Lakers' next matchup comes back home at CryptoArena.com against the 28–14 Utah Jazz, as they look to get back to .500 with a tough stretch of games approaching in their schedule.