On Thursday afternoon, the Los Angeles Lakers held a glorious ceremony to unveil a statue with the likeness of late team legend Kobe Bryant. A number of greats from the team’s past were there, and it was a celebration of the life and career of arguably the greatest Lakers player ever.
It was also somewhat of a reminder that the present-day Lakers simply lack something that those Bryant-led teams of yore had that is required to hang banners.
A few hours later, those present-day Lakers hosted the defending NBA champion Denver Nuggets, the team that swept them out of last May’s Western Conference Finals. They were already short-handed without Jarred Vanderbilt and Gabe Vincent, but they got bad news shortly before the opening tip when starting point guard D’Angelo Russell was ruled out with knee soreness.
Denver got out to an early 10-2 lead, but the Lakers were able to be semi-competitive with their defense and running game. However, their halfcourt game was ineffective, and it seemed there was a lid on the basket, which allowed Denver to lead 59-49 at halftime.
Los Angeles came to within four points at the end of the third quarter, and it competed hard in the fourth quarter. The game was tied with 2:18 left at 104-all, but Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. combined for the contest’s next 10 points to put LeBron James and crew away in a 114-106 decision.
This was L.A.’s seventh consecutive loss to Denver dating back to the 2022-23 regular season. Denver simply has L.A.’s number, and it almost seemed as if it was toying with the Purple and Gold on Thursday.
The Lakers lost this game due to their incessant bugaboos this season — rebounding and 3-point shooting. They got beat on the boards 50-39, and Denver’s 14 offensive rebounds led to 21 second-chance points for it. They went just 8-of-25 from 3-point range, while their opponents shot 43.8% from that distance.
These two weaknesses have single-handedly cost L.A. many games this season. With the trade deadline now in the rear-view mirror, one shouldn’t expect things to improve much in that regard.
Anthony Davis: A
Davis was cooking early. He was perhaps the Lakers’ only consistent offensive performer in the first half, and when they got him the ball in the paint, good things usually happened for them. He also played, at times, some solid defense on Nikola Jokic. Jokic did have 13 rebounds, nine assists and three blocked shots, but his offensive numbers — 24 points on 9-of-20 shooting — were relatively modest, and he also committed six turnovers.
Davis scored 32 points on 14-of-27 shooting while also notching nine rebounds, four blocks, three assists and three steals. He may not be quite the same player Jokic is, but he’s an incredible player in his own right, and he did enough to help L.A.’s cause on Thursday.
Rui Hachimura: F
Hachimura was in the starting lineup for the third game in a row, but he didn’t play like a man worthy of being in the starting lineup on Thursday. He shot just 1-of-5 and scored only two points, to go along with four rebounds and one block in 38 minutes.
This was a night in which L.A. needed plenty more offense from him, especially from the perimeter, but it was nowhere to be found.
Austin Reaves: C-minus
This wasn’t quite Reaves’ night. He missed his first six shots of the game, and he didn’t make his first 3-pointer until midway through the third quarter. Afterward, he seemed to get himself going offensively somewhat.
He shot 4-of-7 in the second half, and he hit a gutsy triple with 2:18 left in the game to tie the score.
Unfortunately, with just over a minute left, he made a costly mistake on defense. He left his man and ran out onto the perimeter to try to attempt a kamikaze steal, which led to Michael Porter Jr. making a wide-open 3-pointer to push the Nuggets’ lead to eight.
Reaves finished just 6-of-16 from the field and 2-of-7 from downtown. He scored 15 points, and he did have a team-high 10 assists against just one turnover. But it seems as if the rest of the NBA has adjusted to what he did a year ago, and he hasn’t been able to come up with any counters.
Max Christie: C-plus
Christie continues to show some promise. He shot just 2-of-7, but he hit two of his three 3-point attempts and had two rebounds, one assist and one steal in 15 minutes.
However, near the end of the first half, he appeared to tweak his ankle and was held out for the rest of the game. The Lakers are already short-handed at the guard and wing spots, and therefore this injury came at a pretty inopportune time.
LeBron James: B
This wasn’t exactly a bad game from James. He scored 25 points on 9-of-20 shooting while also contributing nine rebounds, seven assists, one steal and one block. But it also wasn’t a great game from him, and perhaps L.A. needed a great game from him in order to win.
He shot just 2-of-8 in the fourth quarter, with one of those baskets being a concession bucket with less than a minute left and the outcome already decided. He played the entire fourth period, and that could be a factor in Friday’s game versus the potent New Orleans Pelicans.
Taurean Prince: B-plus/A-minus
Prince did his part in this game. Coming off the bench yet again, he went 4-of-6 from the field and hit two 3-pointers to score 13 points. He also added three rebounds, two assists, two steals and one block.
Christian Wood: D
The Lakers needed a lot more from Wood in this game. He scored just three points and chipped in four rebounds, one assist, one steal and one block. But he’s a scorer, and with multiple rotation players out, they needed him to be aggressive offensively.
Wood has historically been a good 3-point shooter, but for some reason, his 3-point stroke has disappeared this season. He had a promising spurt in December, but overall, he has made just 30.8% of his attempts from that distance. By comparison, he was at 38.2% from downtown the previous four seasons.
Jaxson Hayes: A
Hayes was a big reason the Lakers had a shot at winning down the stretch. In the fourth quarter, he had a flurry of offensive rebounds, three of which led to baskets for them. His aggressiveness led to six rebounds, five of them on the offensive glass, nine points, two blocks, one assist and one steal.
Head coach Darvin Ham rewarded him by leaving him in the game for almost the entire fourth quarter. Hayes played 17 minutes in total, and the intensity he played with is the type of intensity he needs to play with every game.
Skylar Mays: B-minus
Presumably, because the Lakers were so short-handed, Mays unexpectedly got into the game near the end of the third quarter. He did a good job of attacking downhill off the dribble, and it led to two assists for him. He also added one steal in seven minutes.
