By hosting the Lakers at home this Saturday night, the Nuggets hoped to make a big result in front of their home crowd. It’s not every day you get the King, so might as well make a good impression. Behind a crazy three-point success and a Nikola Jokic in the usual control tower, the Denver boys did not just put on a show at home, they imposed on Russell Westbrook and his band the biggest defeat of their season.
A 37-point, old fashion, whooping.
Stu Lantz, the legendary Lakers commentator, did not cut corners when he defined the meeting as the last seconds passed in front of him.
A big, old-fashioned spanking is what the Nuggets gave and what Los Angeles got. First of all, and therefore in particular to return to the defensive atrocity proposed by the visitors this night, let us give back to Caesar what belongs to him. Mike Malone’s men were just coming out of a match with a very big address in front of their audience, in this case a marvel against Portland with an impeccable 21/42 from the parking lot and a delirious crowd. Bones Hyland, Will Barton, Facu Campazzo or even Austin Rivers, everyone took part in the demo and the Blazers F team was forced to lay down their arms. But inevitably, when we receive the Lakers at home, given the cast that there is in front and the history that there is between these two franchises, we wondered if Aaron Gordon and his friends were going to do it again. On the other side, therefore among the Angelinos, the atmosphere was not ideal since the four recent victories in a row gave way to two consecutive losses, one in Memphis in a badly managed money-time and especially one in Sacramento in a defensive laziness mixtape: 125 points allowed to the Kings, 70 points conceded in the racket, Dave McMenamin from ESPN even reported that Frank Vogel had held a very intense video session with his players, in order to show everything that was wrong in Sacramento. Normally, when your coach puts his finger on a porous defense and you go to Denver to the reigning MVP, it has something to motivate you. You can’t chain one disasterclass at the Kings with a new collective nightmare. And it is this opposition, in two very different contexts, which made this game exist. Who was going to get away with it? Were we going to get a punch on the table from LeBron and his gang? Or completely the opposite?
Of match, there will not have been.
Apart from a somewhat balanced start to the match, the rest of the game will turn into a real winter ride for Zeke Nnaji and his friends, who will spend the dream Saturday evening at home. A Jeff Green always so leaping, taking advantage of baseline spaces to explode the hoop when it was not to sanction three-pointers, made the Colorado crowd rise. Davon Reed, sent on a defensive mission on LeBron in particular, once again exhibited all his aggressiveness and his taste for coverage in one-on-one in front of a bench more reassembled than ever. Bones Hyland, already hot against Portland, returned the table a second night in a row with three-point shooting galore and this level of insurance that makes him – already – a star in the region. In the middle of all this, a real three-pointer with 23 shots returned from the parking lot on only 40 attempts, in other words that the Lakers had the feeling of being constantly bombarded. But, as said regarding Davon Reed, the work was not only handled on one side of the pitch, there was defense too with Aaron Gordon and the other knives of the Nuggets, the afro winger even coming to get Russell Westbrook out of his match on a scramble started by a somewhat physical but oh so interesting defense. It was Denver as we like, so collective, so playful, wishing to transmit the happiness of the game to many and making sure that everyone contributes to the final work. Nikola Jokic, obviously, was just doing his job with a triple-double in just over a half (17-12-13 in 28 minutes), without forcing the reigning MVP feasted against Dwight Howard and distributed the caviars for his buddies who took advantage of the metro lines left in the clan opposite.
Because yes, it is indeed a jerk off with connotation we don’t give a damn about the steaks in defense which took place that night. And once again, the Lakers seemed disinterested in their own half of the field, which only pointed to the glaring absence of Anthony Davis in the current rotation. Once the first curtain passed, which Sacramento managed, you can score excessively in the racket. And if the first curtain moves back or is too lazy to make its rotations to avoid taking on water inside, you get penalized outside as Denver showed it last night. A delay, a sigh. Good news this weekend though, it has been reported that AD could make a comeback on the Lakers’ upcoming roadtrip which will take place from January 22-30, so there is hope. But the interior is not out of a minor injury, the objective remains to have him in top form for the Playoffs and asking him to make multiple efforts on his knees to cover the defensive shortcomings of this team will not be not the best idea. What will be quite intense to follow, normally, over the next few days: it’s the reaction of the band to this kind of defeat, the noises around the trade deadline and the reactions of the management. Because if the 4 victories in a row recently gave balm to the hearts of Los Angeles fans, this kind of defeat is cause for concern, especially when it follows a defensive disaster and with a coach whose instructions are not completely listened to. What will it be like when you face… Utah on Monday night, the best attack in the entire NBA? In the event of another nightmare with more than 120 points cashed, the week will become extremely hot on the streets of LA
There are no 36 ways to react to this kind of situation, with a frustrating loss in Memphis, a waking nap in Sacramento and then a total abandonment in Denver. While the upcoming return of Anthony Davis is a promising prospect, the fact is that these Lakers have big issues to deal with internally. Coach, rotations, transfers, hard to believe that the next 2 weeks will be easy for the fans.
