The Los Angeles Lakers fell to the Denver Nuggets 115-99 Wednesday at Staples Center for their fourth straight loss.
Despite a push from an energized bench unit, a late 26-12 run in the fourth quarter by the Nuggets put the game out of reach. Here’s the good, the bad and the Ball from the game.
The Good: Bench, LeBron James
Early indications signaled a forthcoming blowout loss as the Nuggets raced out to a 43-25 first quarter lead.
But the most interesting thing happened as the Lakers surged forward to outscore the Nuggets 52-42 over the next two quarters. A large part of that effort to climb back into the contest came from an energized Lakers bench unit that including big contributions from Alex Caruso, Jonathan Williams and Moritz Wagner.
Caruso finished with 15 points, 6 rebounds, and three assists. Wagner added 11 points, three rebounds, and two assists. The seldom-used Williams supplied eight points and two rebounds. The Lakers bench as a whole finished with 39 points
Major attention for the game, as custom, was placed on LeBron James as he eclipsed Michael Jordan to move into fourth place on the NBA’s all-time leading scorers list. James finished the game with 31 points, seven assists, and seven rebounds. He now sits at 32, 311 career points and counting.
The Bad: Free Throws, Rebounds
Although the Lakers bench displayed the resiliency to grind back into the game, the team as a whole were awful all night from the charity stripe as they were only able to convert 12 of 23 free throw attempts.
In addition to the poor showing from the line, Los Angeles was also outrebounded 55-41 on the glass. The team seemingly gave up every offensive rebound at one point, 18 overall, giving the Nuggets a plethora of second-chance opportunities.
With fans showing interest in the game after their team crawled back to make it a contest, the Lakers let down their fans yet again.
The Ball: 18 straight
Make it 18 straight DNP’s for Lonzo Ball as he continues to nurse the bone bruise in his left ankle. Ball was spotted at Lakers practice getting shots up in a limited capacity.
