Los Angeles Lakers: 4 Lessons from win over Denver Nuggets
By Ronald Agers
Here are four lessons from the Los Angeles Lakers win against the Denver Nuggets.
The Los Angeles Lakers raced to an 17-3 record to finish almost the first quarter of their season. It would mark them along with the Milwaukee Bucks as the NBA’s best team. Sadly in these NBA social media times, there has to be an asterisk or narrative to downplay a player or team’s accomplishments.
The Lakers have played a soft schedule with mostly bottom feeders to start the season. After a bad loss to the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday, the Lakers had the opportunity to silence critics about their legitimacy of being the best team in the Western Conference. There’s no time like the present as they faced the West’s second best team in the Denver Nuggets. Mike Malone made his thoughts clear before the game started.
Coach Malone when asked about the Lakers being in town and the two best teams in the West facing off tomorrow night said the Lakers are “on a whole nother level. They’re the best team in the West.”
— Katy Winge (@katywinge) December 2, 2019
Top 5 in both o/d, Lakers beat teams in the paint, in transition, on the glass.
Wasn’t it nice for the Los Angeles Lakers to walk out on the floor and make him look competent as an analyst? With questions of the level of competition that has dogged the team so far, and with half the team, most notably Anthony Davis reportedly dealing with flu-like symptoms, a road trip to Denver was what the doctor ordered.
The Lakers made a statement to the NBA and the Nuggets starting an important road stretch with an impressive 105-96 win. This post game could stop right here with stating LeBron James and Anthony Davis showed up as stars while Nuggets star Nikola Jokic played like he’d rather be somewhere else at times during the game. It’s a good thing too, because the shooting needs work.
Danny Green scored 5 points, shooting 2-of-12 from the field (1-of-7 from distance). How much are the Lakers paying this guy? Sure, the season stats show he’s the best 3 point shooter on the team but, what has he done really since the first Dallas matchup? Those Avery Bradley and Dwight Howard deals are covering up that potential overpriced contract.
A few more games like these and Kyle Kuzma will be dealing with the casual Lakers fans trade demands. Shooting 2-of-6 from the field for 6 points while collecting 3 turnovers is not going to quiet the critics.
Another game, another win. The now 18-3 Los Angeles Lakers add one game in the loss column over their chief contenders, Nuggets and the Houston Rockets in the Western Conference while leading the current two seed Los Angeles Clippers by three games.
Lets’ get to Lake Show Life Lessons!