The Los Angeles Lakers, with a historic LeBron James, rolled up their sleeves with a great defensive display to drown the Denver Nuggets (114-93) and thus score a victory of great merit and collective effort.
James was the leader of the Angelenos with a triple-double (27 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists) and, in addition, he became the third player with the most shots scored in NBA history. by beating Wilt Chamberlain (ahead only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Karl Malone remain).
But James was above all the first to show his team that the road to victory was to sweat the fat drop in defense.
At 36, James infected supporting actors such as Talen Horton-Tucker, Kyle Kuzma or Montrezl Harrell to disarm in the third quarter some Nuggets who until then controlled the game with enough serenity.
The Denver team had reached the break dominating the score 46-58, but after the Lakers’ master lesson in the third quarter they landed in the last twelve minutes losing 8 (83-75) after a 15-0 run ( 37-17 across the room).
Maximum intensity to protect the rim, sacrifice in each shock, robberies and two for one, electrical counterattacks. The Lakers taught there why they are the best defensive team in the NBA so far this season.
Another of the images of the game was that of Dennis Schroder dipping his head twice in a row on the same play to try to steal a ball.
“This is who we are,” James told US television after the game ended. “We start and finish with the defense,” he added.
Marc Gasol was not part of that stretch of total inspiration for the Lakers, but he did add in defense throughout the game to dry a Nikola Jokic less bright than normal (13 points with 6 of 16 in shooting, 10 rebounds and 6 assists).
The Spaniard got 2 points (0 of 4 in shots), 2 rebounds, an assist, a block and a steal in 20 minutes.
For his part, Facundo Campazzo had a testimonial participation (he played only two minutes) for some Nuggets in which the most outstanding was Jamal Murray (20 points, 3 rebounds and 5 assists).
The Lakers are now left with a balance of 17 wins and 6 losses (the second best in the league tied with the Utah Jazz) and are beginning to correct their strange poor performance at home (5 wins against 4 lost games).
The Nuggets, who couldn’t get their revenge against the team that eliminated them in last year’s Western Conference final, have 12 wins and 9 losses.
The opening bars of the game belonged to the Nuggets, who came with extra rest after the suspension of their last game against the Detroit Pistons due to the coronavirus protocol.
The visitors sent in the first quarter (27-30) with Murray leading an offense with great success (52% in shots, 50% only in triples).
In the ranks of the reigning NBA champions, Anthony Davis went too unnoticed and, despite Kuzma’s first flashes of energy, the Nuggets managed to slightly stretch the gap in the middle of the second quarter (40-48).
Stuck in attack and without hitting the key in defense, those in purple and gold went to the dressing room with many pending duties (46-58).
And then the local cyclone of the third quarter arrived. The Lakers plugged each and every one of their holes in defense to despair of a completely stunned Nuggets.
As James’ companions, Schroder (21 points at the end of the game), Kuzma (11 points), Harrell (13 points) and, above all, a Horton-Tucker (17 points) who made it clear that from the bench he can be a most attractive piece for the Lakers.
The same philosophy of defend and run that gave them the comeback (83-75) continued in the outcome of the game, where the Nuggets surrendered before the superiority of the Lakers (68-35 of partial in the second half) after a wonderful assist from James to Horton-Tucker who finished the game.