The Denver Nuggets fell 119-108 to the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday in a game that saw Denver fail to knock out a Los Angeles team that they had on the ropes three game to none.
After the game, Nuggets head coach Michael Malone spoke about what doomed his team on Saturday night:
Said Malone, “The paint was a joke…I sounded like a broken record tonight. Every huddle was – paint, paint, paint.”
The Lakers pounded the Nuggets inside to the tune of 72 points in the paint, led by Anthony Davis and LeBron James – who had 25 and 30 points, respectively.
D’Angelo Russell and Austin Reaves each chipped in 21 points apiece for the seventh-seed Lakers, who managed to snap their 11-game losing streak against the defending NBA champions with their first win over the Nuggets since December 2022.
With the win, the Lakers avoided being eliminated with a 119-108 victory over Denver in Game 4 of their first-round NBA Playoffs series Saturday night.
Nuggets role players struggle
Denver Guard Reggie Jackson suffered an injury late in their Game 3 win over the LA Lakers on Thursday. With under a minute to go in the first quarter, Jackson accidentally landed on the foot of Anthony Davis while fighting for a rebound. Moments after rolling his ankle, Jackson limped off the floor, heading toward the Nuggets locker room.
With Jackson limited to only nine minutes as he dealt with an ankle injury, it was going to be up to the rest of the Nuggets bench to step up on Saturday night. Unfortunately, Denver’s reserves weren’t up to the challenge.
Christian Braun went scoreless in his 12 minutes of action, going 0-2 from the floor. Peyton Watson had two points in 13 minutes of court time. While the Nuggets’ main core of Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, and Michael Porter Jr. all did what they needed to do, Denver’s bench failed to show up. The entire reserve unit scored five points in 39 minutes of action.
Additionally, after an absolutely dominating 29-point outburst in Game 3 on Thursday, Aaron Gordon came back down to earth in Game 4.
Gordon finished with only seven points on 3-7 shooting in his 42 minutes of action on Saturday. While the Nuggets can count on Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray to get their offense, and Michael Porter Jr. is becoming an even more lethal scorer as time goes by, Gordon is sort of an X-factor for the Denver offense.
Gordon has a tough job in this series. He’s tasked with matching up with Lakers big man Anthony Davis on switches and quite often needs to help on LeBron as well. It’s a brutal job, but the Nuggets needed Gordon to have another night like he did on Thursday, when he was able to demoralize the Lakers with his repeated transition dunks.
Now the series moves to Game 5 in Denver on Monday night.
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