Luka Doncic's hot first quarter sparks Lakers to win over short-handed Nuggets
The streamers would eventually fall Wednesday night. The huge cheers for Bronny James coming off the bench in the fourth quarter were bound to happen. Randy Newman's 'I Love L.A.' would play.
It was a fate that was almost assured by the time fans started filing into the building.
The latest chapter in the Lakers-Nuggets recent history was going to look a lot different, with word buzzing around near the court during pregame work that Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray weren't going to be able to play.
The script was flipped — the Lakers and their fans used to seeing Nuggets come off the injury report ahead of games against Los Angeles instead of them staying on it. But without Denver's two best players, all it was going to take from the Lakers was a focused performance to get the job done.
Read more: Lakers don't shy away from 'naked' opportunities in blowout win over Spurs
By midway through the first quarter, Luka Doncic was so good that the bar for 'focused performance' suddenly had been significantly lowered.
The Lakers handled the Denver Nuggets 120-108, Doncic's monster first quarter was enough to cover up for sluggish, sloppy play that might've cost them if Jokic and Murray were on the floor.
Doncic scored 21 points in the first quarter, including nine in the first three minutes of the game, to give the Lakers a lead that grew all the way to 30 in the second half before the Lakers fully eased off the gas.
The Nuggets outscored the Lakers by 16 in the fourth quarter, Doncic able to spend the entire final 12 minutes on the bench with the Lakers set to host Milwaukee Thursday.
It'll be the Lakers' sixth game in the past eight days.
Doncic finished Wednesday with 31 points, nine rebounds and seven assists. And while he cooled off significantly after the first quarter, his presence again allowed the Lakers to take and make wide-open threes all game.
Dorian Finney-Smith, Gabe Vincent and Dalton Knecht combined to make 10 threes on 17 attempts.
While the win earn the Lakers' a 2-2 split with Denver this season, a valuable asset in a tight West race in which the Lakers' should finish ahead of the Nuggets in tiebreaker scenarios, it didn't really offer any grand information about where either team stands heading into the final four weeks of the season.
Read more: Luka Doncic scores 33 and gritty Lakers beat Suns to end four-game losing skid
Pregame, Michael Malone forcefully said that Jokic and Murray weren't 'resting' as the Nuggets missed their lead duo for the second consecutive game. Both players, he said, are dealing with injuries.
Without them, Denver didn't have a chance, the Lakers riding a dominant quarter from Doncic during which he was able to get whatever he wanted near the basket or behind the three-point line.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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