The Los Angeles Lakers returned to the court on Saturday night and faced a tough rough test against a Denver Nuggets team that has won nine in a row.
The Nuggets have also beaten the Lakers in 13 of their last 14 matchups including the playoffs, although this is a new-look L.A. squad after the addition of Luka Doncic. A new-look squad it was indeed as the Lakers came away with a statement win, blowing out the Nuggets, 123-100.
It was a quick 6-0 start for the Lakers before a Jamal Murray triple got the Nuggets on the board. Doncic still looked rusty offensively early but was creating for others. He then got going quickly though with seven straight points to give L.A. an early 24-16 lead.
Jarred Vanderbilt came off the bench and made an immediate impact with two steals and drawing a Flagrant 1 foul on Julian Strawther. Doncic continued his early hot start, but the Nuggets ended the first quarter on a run to cut a double digit deficit down to 38-31.
With Doncic and Nikola Jokic heading to the bench, LeBron James and Austin Reaves ran the show to start the second and got the lead back to double digits.
Jokic eventually returned and stabilized his team by getting more aggressive offensively. Murray also heated up from deep, but Doncic ended the half with an alley-oop to James and then another triple to go into the locker room with a 63-54 lead.
As has been the case a lot when these two teams have met, the Nuggets came out hot in the third quarter with eight straight points. This time though, the Lakers punched back as Doncic found James for another dunk to start their own 10-0 run, forcing a Denver timeout.
The Lakers were leaving Russell Westbrook open and he made them pay with a pair of triples. That seemed to get both teams going as they kept exchanging 3s for an extended stretch to end the third quarter with the Lakers taking a 96-87 lead.
Rui Hachimura, who had been so great for the Lakers on both ends of the floor, took an elbow to the side and went straight back to the locker room. He ended up being OK though and with Jokic on the bench, the Lakers stretched their lead to a game-high 17.
That stretch proved to be the key one as Doncic and Reaves would take over from there, extending the lead to 20 and putting the game out of reach for an impressive victory.
Doncic led all scorers in the win with 32 points to go along with 10 rebounds, seven assists and four steals.
The Lakers will now return home and get ready for a highly anticipated with the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday night. It will mark the first time Doncic plays against his former team and also the first time Max Christie will return to L.A. Anthony Davis is not expected to be available due to an abdominal injury.