Lakers lose sixth straight to Nuggets but learn they can trade LeBron James
By Ronald Agers
The bad from the Los Angeles Lakers’ loss:
Nikola Jokic woke up in the second half!
The Joker had five turnovers…in the first quarter. He looked like he was out enjoying the Hollywood nightlife for about the first 20 minutes of the game. But there’s a reason why this dude is up for the NBA’s Most Valuable Player Award…again.
Jokic leads the league with 19 triple-doubles, the 3rd-most triple-doubles in a season by a center all-time, trailing a pair of seasons from Wilt Chamberlain. He’s tops the league in every advanced stat the NBA has. Watching this guy is incredible.
He finished with 38 points (15-22 shooting!), 18 rebounds, 6 assists and after that bad turnover quarter, he only had two more for the rest of the game.
Aaron Gordon really hurt the Los Angeles Lakers frontline.
Gordon started off this season very slowly but like most of the season, the Lakers caught a player on a hot streak. Gordon came into this game averaging 19.2 points over the last five games. It didn’t take long to see that he was going to make the frontline suffer in this game.
Gordon had 24 points and 8 rebounds that matched the production of Anthony Davis. With Will Barton scoring 25 points of his own, the Lakers just did not have enough firepower in the final quarter to keep up.
Malik Monk reminded us all of why the Charlotte Hornets let him go!
Forget the box score because he was awful and undisciplined in this game, He fouled a 3 point shooter before halftime, he took bad shots and complained so much that Carmelo Anthony was overheard telling him to stop complaining to the refs and play the game.
Monk was a bad boy in Charlotte showing glimpses of the same talent shown all year long. This game here was the type of inconsistent play that left him with one contract offer that hurt his feelings in the offseason.