One critical early-game mistake doomed Lakers in Game 1 loss to Nuggets
DENVER — Throughout this postseason, rookie coach Darvin Ham and his Lakers staff have made the right choice at the right moment, finding the right game-plan tweak, the right rotation change, the right shift at the right moment.
They did with the way the Lakers defended Memphis in the first round. They did it with the way the Lakers chased Stephen Curry and quieted Klay Thompson against Golden State, and by plugging Lonnie Walker IV into the rotation in Game 4 and starting Dennis Schroder in Game 6 to dethrone the defending champions.
The moment never seemed too big, the Lakers’ Xs and O’s getting A’s.
Ahead of Game 1 of the Western Conference finals at Denver, Ham faced another choice — stick with Schroder in the starting lineup, return to Jarred Vanderbilt or find some magic elsewhere.
Lakers comeback falls short in Game 1
The Lakers chopped into a 21-point second-half deficit, but lost 132-126 to the Nuggets in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals.
After taking a timeout down by five with 26.1 seconds remaining, the Lakers turned the ball over, effectively ending their comeback attempt as Nikola Jokic made a final free throw to put the finishing touch on his 34-point, 21-rebound, 14-assist triple-double.
Anthony Davis carried the Lakers with 40 points and 10 rebounds. LeBron James had 26 points, 12 rebounds and nine assists. Austin Reaves led the late charge with 11 of his 23 points in the fourth quarter.
Jamal Murray had 31 points and former Lakers guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope scored 21.
Can Lakers complete the comeback?
Nikola Jokic was fouled with 26.3 seconds remaining and made two free throws to put the Nuggets ahead 131-126.
The Lakers have cut the deficit to three on three occasions in the fourth quarter, twice off three-pointers from Austin Reaves. He has 23 points in the game, 11 in the fourth quarter.
Anthony Davis has 40 points and 10 rebounds.
Lakers within three in fourth quarter
Here come the Lakers.
A three-pointer from Austin Reaves has the Lakers down by just three points. The Nuggets called a timeout up 124-121 with 3:22 remaining.
After a free throw from LeBron James that cut the lead to six, Nikola Jokic turned the ball over trying to pass it to Aaron Gordan. Jokic was guarded by Rui Hachimurau, who has emerged as a key defensive piece against the two-time MVP in addition to scoring 17 points off the bench.
Reaves has 20 points and eight assists.
Anthony Davis has 40 points
Nikola Jokic isn’t the only star big man in this game.
Anthony Davis has 40 points and eight rebounds as the Lakers are trying to claw back from a 21-point, second-half deficit. The Lakers trail 124-117 with 4:12 remaining.
Lakers trying to stay close in fourth quarter
The Lakers trail 123-110 with 5:48 remaining in the fourth quarter as coach Darvin Ham unsuccessfully challenged a foul call against Dennis Schroder.
Schroder picked up his third foul on a ticky-tack call on a drive by Jamal Murray, who made two free throws after the timeout.
Although it feels like the Nuggets are dominating, the Lakers are not out of it. Anthony Davis is keeping the Lakers in it with 36 points and seven rebounds. He is 13-for-21 shooting from the field and has made all nine of his free throws.
Don’t forget about Jamal Murray
Nikola Jokic’s sensational 31-point, 19-rebound, 12-assist triple-double will get the headlines out of Denver tonight, but Jamal Murray is another problem that will keep the Lakers coaching staff up at night all series.
Murray has 29 points, including the last four for the Nuggets, who lead 118-104 with 7:14 remaining.
Murray is 12 for 18 from the field and four for six from three-point range.
Anthony Davis has 33 points for the Lakers. Rui Hachimura has provided a big lift from the bench with 17 points on eight-for-11 shooting.
Lakers cut deficit to eight early in fourth quarter
Nikola Jokic has been brilliant, but the Lakers aren’t out of it.
Austin Reaves nailed a three-pointer with 10:09 remaining in the fourth quarter to get the Lakers to within single digits again, trailing 108-100.
As good as the Denver offense has been, the Lakers are keeping pace. They shot 75% from the field in the third quarter and are at 56.3% for the game, which is even better than Denver at 55.8%.
Reaves has 15 points and a team-high eight assists. Anthony Davis leads the Lakers with 31 points. LeBron James is nearing a double-double with 22 points and nine rebounds.
Anthony Davis’ 31 points overshowed by Nikola Jokic
Anthony Davis could only shake his head as he went to the bench after yet another Nikola Jokic highlight.
The Nuggets center’s desperation three-pointer at the buzzer over Davis’ extended arm put the Nuggets ahead 106-92 at the end of the third quarter.
For the Lakers, it feels like this could be worse. They trailed by as many as 21 in the quarter but went on an 11-2 run before Jokic’s heave. He has 31 points on 12-for-15 shooting, 19 rebounds and 12 assists. He has made all three shots from deep.
Former Laker Kentavious Caldwell-Pope has haunted his former team with 12 points in the third quarter. He has scored 16 total.
Davis is matching Jokic in the scoring column with 31 points on 12-for-19 shooting, but he has just six rebounds.
Nikola Jokic reaches triple-double in less than three quarters
The Nuggets pushed their lead back to 20 points and the Lakers called a timeout down 90-70 with 6:05 remaining in the third quarter.
Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray both have 23 points and Jokic also 17 rebounds and 11 assists for a triple-double. It feels all too easy against a Lakers team that has led the league in defensive rating during the postseason.
Anthony Davis has 24 points while LeBron James has 13 points, eight rebounds and five assists.
Nuggets call early timeout in third quarter
The Lakers made four of their first five shots of the second half, forcing the Nuggets to take an early timeout.
The Nuggets lead 78-62 with 9:33 remaining in the third quarter.
D’Angelo Russell has four points for the Lakers in the third quarter and six for the game. Anthony Davis had a dunk off a LeBron James assist and has 20 points.
Jamal Murray, who was limited this week with a non-COVID illness, scored the first six Nuggets points of the quarter on a pair of three-pointers and has a game-high 23 points.
What can the Lakers do against Nikola Jokic?
We’re back for the Nikola Jokic show, I mean, the second half, as the Lakers try to climb back from a 72-54 deficit.
The Nuggets center is dominating with 19 points on seven-for-10 shooting, 16 rebounds and seven assists. Jokic and Jamal Murray (17 points) are a combined 14 for 21 from the field.
Anthony Davis is trying to hold his own against Jokic with 18 points and two rebounds. LeBron James is carrying the Lakers on the boards with eight of the team’s 13 rebounds.
Nuggets lead by 18 points at halftime
The Lakers cut the Nuggets’ lead to single digits, but the Western Conference’s top-seeded team still finished the first half with its largest lead of the game.
Powered by 19 points, 16 rebounds and seven assists from Nikola Jokic, the Nuggets lead 72-54 at halftime.
A free throw from LeBron James with 7:02 remaining in the second quarter got the Lakers to within single digits, but Jokic scored the next five points for the Nuggets.
James has 11 points and eight rebounds, while Anthony Davis has 18 points, two rebounds and two blocked shots.
Jokic is single-handedly outrebounding the Lakers, who have 13 total.
Jamal Murray has 17 points, including a mid-range jumper with one second left in the first half that put the Nuggets ahead by 18. Bruce Brown has 14 points off the bench and is nearly outscoring the entire Lakers bench, which has 15.
Lakers cut into Nuggets lead
Anthony Davis and LeBron James both have 10 points as the Lakers have a chance to cut the Nuggets lead to single digits.
The Lakers trail 46-36 with 7:02 remaining with James heading to the free-throw line for two more shots after a media timeout.
The Lakers responded to Denver’s seven unanswered points with a 7-2 run. Davis scored four of those points and had a big blocked shot against Nikola Jokic, who re-entered the game three minutes into the second quarter.
Bad is getting worse for the Lakers
The Lakers cut the deficit to 10, but the Nuggets responded with seven unanswered points to take a 44-27 lead with 10:12 remaining in the second quarter.
The Nuggets are making the run with Nikola Jokic on the bench. In his place, Jamal Murray and Bruce Brown are combining for all the points on the scoring run.
Murray has eight points and Brown has scored a game-high 11.
Rui Hachimura scored the only Lakers points of the second quarter and has four points off the bench.
Nikola Jokic dominates first quarter
Behind a brilliant start from star center Nikola Jokic, the Nuggets lead 37-25 after the first quarter.
The two-time MVP has eight points, 12 rebounds, five assists and two blocked shots in 11 minutes. He is outrebounding the entire Lakers team, which has just six rebounds combined.
LeBron James leads the Lakers with eight points, four rebounds and two assists. The Nuggets jumped ahead by as many as 16.
No jokes here
Nikola Jokic has four times as many rebounds as the Lakers do as a team.
Jokic is flirting with a first-quarter double-double with eight points and 12 rebounds as the Nuggets lead 34-19 with 2:23 remaining in the first quarter.
The Lakers have three rebounds total, two from LeBron James and one from Dennis Schroder.
Anthony Davis is leading the Lakers in scoring with six points. Jokic also has five assists and two blocked shots, including one against Davis.
Nuggets off to efficient start in Game 1
There’s no wonder the Nuggets lead the NBA in offensive rating this postseason.
The Nuggets lead 18-9 with 7:14 to go in the first quarter. They’re shooting 53.3% from the field and have rebounded six of their seven missed shots.
All five of Denver’s starters have scored, led by Michael Porter Jr. and Jamal Murray, who each have five points. Nikola Jokic has two points, five rebounds and three assists.
Anthony Davis leads the Lakers with four points and one blocked shot.
The ESPN broadcast noted that the shot clocks are on the floor in the corner of the courts instead of above the baskets because of a technical malfunction. The change hasn’t appeared to knock any players off course so far, but it could result in some shot clock gaffes.
Lakers tip off against Nuggets in Western Conference finals
Hello, this is Thuc Nhi Nguyen. I’m strangely exhilarated from the NBA draft lottery special and ready to drive our Western Conference finals live blog tonight from Los Angeles. My colleagues Dan Woike, Brad Turner and Bill Plaschke are in Denver, where the Lakers take on the Nuggets in a rematch of the 2020 bubble Western Conference finals.
The Lakers have won Game 1 in both of their playoff series this year, but the task will be much tougher tonight against the top-seeded Nuggets, who are undefeated at home during the postseason.
Dennis Schroder stays in Lakers starting lineup for Game 1
After helping the Lakers to a close-out victory over the Golden State Warriors in Game 6 of the Western Conference semifinals, Dennis Schroder will remain in the starting lineup for Game 1 of the Western Conference finals.
He gets the nod along with LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Austin Reaves and D’Angelo Russell. Schroder scored three points with five assists in the Game 6 win against the Warriors, but was ejected with two technical fouls after 25 minutes.
The Nuggets will start Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Aaron Gordon and Michael Porter Jr.
Plaschke: I was wrong, these Lakers can win an NBA title
In early November, after the Lakers had lost seven of their first nine games, I gave up.
“The Lakers stink,” I wrote.
In early April, they looked tired and distracted and I threw in the towel.
“The Lakers are not a championship team,” I wrote.
On a raucous May Friday night at Crypto.com Arena, I’m absorbing the deafening cheers, admiring the unabashed domination, and choking on my words.
These Lakers most assuredly do not stink.
The Lakers are absolutely a championship team.
In a statement as breathtaking as an Austin Reaves half-court swish, the Lakers ended the reign of the defending NBA champions while grinding to within eight wins of their own unlikeliest of titles, and if you don’t believe in them now, you never will.
Lakers vs. Denver Nuggets betting odds for Game 1
Here are the latest betting lines and odds for the Lakers and Denver Nuggets heading into Game 1 of the Western Conference finals on Tuesday night.
Denver is favored by six points in Game 1. The Lakers’ estimated score is 108 and the Denver Nuggets’ estimated score is 114.
Lakers’ Austin Reaves puts on a show for visiting brother Spencer
Spencer Reaves got behind the wheel of his white Dodge Challenger and made the drive from Warrensburg, Mo., to Wichita State’s campus in Kansas to watch his little brother, Austin, play in the final conference game of his sophomore season.
Spencer’s season at the University of Central Missouri had ended two days before despite his 29 points in all 40 minutes against Central Oklahoma, so he had time for the 240-mile trip between the two campuses.
Before the Lakers played Game 5 of the Western Conference semifinals in San Francisco, it was the last time Spencer had seen Austin play in person.
Friday, Spencer watched Austin play in Los Angeles, in front of the crowd that has serenaded him with “MVP” chants regularly through the season.
Austin hit a half-court shot to end the second quarter, Spencer rising to his feet at his seat one row behind Jeanie Buss, the perfect angle to see it swish through the net.
“He’s always lived for these kinds of moments. Same in high school. Even if he wasn’t the go-to guy,” said Spencer, who won a state title with his then-freshman brother at Cedar Ridge High in Newark, Ark.
Lakers know what they’re facing in former teammate KCP
DENVER — Kentavious Caldwell-Pope could only laugh when he was asked about having won an NBA championship as a starting guard with the Lakers in 2020. Now as a starting guard with the Denver Nuggets both teams are in the other’s way of trying to reach the NBA Finals.
“That’s crazy, right?” he said after practice Monday on the eve of Game 1 of the Western Conference finals between the Lakers and Nuggets at Ball Arena. “We just talked about it yesterday and had a laugh about it. The crazy thing about it is that the same four teams that were in the bubble in the conference finals are back in the conference finals again. We had a good laugh about it.”
He was referring to how the Lakers and Nuggets met in the Western Conference finals in 2020 on the Walt Disney World campus near Orlando, Fla., and are facing off again while the Boston Celtics and Miami Heat met in the Eastern Conference finals in 2020 and are going at it again in 2023.
Before Caldwell-Pope could finish his thoughts, Denver reserve center DeAndre Jordan interrupted the conversation, joking that the reporter from Los Angeles wanted extra information.
“You know you won a championship with the Lakers. How does it feel?” said Jordan, who played for the Lakers and Clippers. “So, give me some details on the Nuggets.”
Caldwell-Pope shook his head and laughed.
Yes, the Nuggets have the home-court advantage, but he’s expecting it to be a tough best-of-seven series.
Lakers’ game plan: Win Game 1 and grab control of series
DENVER — A wall of video cameras surrounded Nikola Jokic as reporters piled around the two-time MVP after the Nuggets finished their final practice before Game 1 of the Western Conference finals.
All eyes were on him. And for Lakers coach Darvin Ham, that’s a problem. Because if everyone could just turn off the cameras and turn around for a quick second, the Lakers and their head coach can execute their game plan for stopping one of the NBA’s best players.
“Try to catch him coming out of his house and kidnap him,” Ham said jokingly.
Jokic will certainly avoid Ham’s clutches ahead of Game 1 on Tuesday, but that plan might be as good as any against a player who has been dominant all postseason. He’s averaged 30.7 points, 12.8 rebounds and 9.7 assists, the rare kind of offensive force who can dominate a game as a scorer and a passer.
“We’re gonna have to mix up pitches. [Anthony Davis] will start on him,” Ham said. “We have a few different guys that will see action against him. Just try to put your best foot forward every time out. But again, try to do everything we can to do our work early and keep him off-balance.”
In the opening round, the Lakers defense had to deal with Memphis All-Star guard Ja Morant. In the second round, it was Golden State All-Star guard Stephen Curry. Ham and his coaches were able to devise game plans — that didn’t involve kidnapping — that often worked.
Both series wins followed the same path, a win in Game 1 to take control followed by wins in the Lakers’ three games in Los Angeles.
Lakers discuss challenge ahead with Nikola Jokic and the Nuggets
Anthony Davis smiled and looked over at LeBron James sitting next to him at the podium, the two Lakers stars and leaders admitting they had already given some thoughts about playing the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference finals.
The Lakers had just dispatched the defending NBA champion Golden State Warriors by winning the best-of-seven semifinal series 4-2 with a 122-101 victory Friday night and there was joy inside L.A.’s locker room and universe at Crypto.com Arena.
Sure, it was time for the Lakers to rejoice, to reset with three days off before they meet the Nuggets in Game 1 on Tuesday night in Denver, to recalibrate after having dealt with Golden State’s dangerous trio of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green.
The preparation never stops for Davis and James, and so they thought back to 2020, when the Lakers defeated the Nuggets in five games in the Western Conference finals in the bubble on the Walt Disney World sports campus near Orlando, Fla.
Here the Lakers and Nuggets are again, set to meet again with a chance to reach the NBA Finals on the line.
“It’s funny, but me and Bron talked about it earlier, about going back and watching that series to kinda see what we did to kinda figure out how we can best match up and get victories over them,” Davis said.
What scouts expect in Western Conference finals
It’s the Hollywood script with the third-act twist nobody saw coming.
For the first time since 2014, the Golden State Warriors reached the postseason but not the NBA Finals. And it was the Lakers, of all teams — the same Lakers who started this season 2-10 — who dethroned the Warriors’ streak of 19 consecutive playoff series victories against Western Conference opponents.
The Lakers’ series-clinching win in Game 6 last Friday sets up a Western Conference finals against top-seeded Denver, a rematch of 2020, that begins Tuesday in Denver.
Though the rosters, and even the coaching staffs in the case of the Lakers, have almost entirely flipped since their last postseason meeting, league insiders interviewed by The Los Angeles Times agree that the series will again hinge on the starring duos who have remained: The Lakers’ LeBron James and Anthony Davis and Denver’s Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray.
Two scouts, a front-office executive involved in scouting, and a coach were granted anonymity in exchange for their candor in scouting the conference finals.
Scout No. 1
I actually think that Denver is a better matchup for the Lakers compared to the previous two they’ve had in Memphis and Golden State. The Lakers being a bigger and older team — older in a certain sense — struggle with those dynamic, shifty or explosive guards. I actually think they will fare well against everyone else besides Jokic. The Lakers tend to be pretty good when they can hone in on one thing specifically.