On Tuesday the 24th of October, the Los Angeles Lakers and Denver Nuggets played their first regular season NBA game against each other. This was a game that was dominated by the Nuggets from the start. For the Nuggets, it was an emotional game because it was the night that they raised their championship banner and received their championship rings. The Nuggets fed off of their fans to give them the momentum to keep playing and outscore the Lakers by jumping out to an 18-point lead at the beginning of the game.
In this game, Lebron James played a huge factor in the Lakers keeping up with the Nuggets the whole game. James had to be taken out of the game more than he usually does. People have suspected that this is because he is now 38 years old and can’t continue to put in the minutes that he is used to. James is currently the oldest player in the NBA, and the Lakers want to monitor his minutes so he can continue to play the whole season and decrease the chance of injury.
The Lakers newest addition, Taurean Prince, had a great debut for his Lakers career with 18 points, 3 rebounds, 1 block, and 1 assist. Prince will be a player that the Lakers will need to perform as they get deeper into the regular season, especially if the Lakers keep James’ minutes lower than usual and keep giving him rest. The Lakers will still have to rely on their stars like Lebron James, Anthony Davis, Austin Reaves, and D’Angelo Russell to be the foundation for this team.
For the Nuggets, they had the game won from the tip-off of the game by scoring 18 points right away. The Nuggets stars were Jamal Murray, Nikola Jokic, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Aaron Gordon, and Michael Porter Jr. Jokic had a season-opening triple-double, and Murray had 21 points that helped to push the Nuggets in the right direction to beat the Lakers in this matchup.
The Nuggets showed that they are going to defend their newest title and do so by tiring out the other teams because they run their offense at a very high pace that not many NBA teams can keep up with. Aaron Gordon and Nikola Jokic are a big reason why the Nuggets can play at such a fast pace because they grab most of the rebounds and push the ball up the court before the other team’s defense can set up. Jamal Murray has also played a big role in how the Nuggets run their offense and defense. In the game against the Lakers, Murray contributed with 21 points, 6 assists, and 1 block.
The Nuggets have the ability to make it back to the NBA Finals if the current starting lineup stays healthy and injury-free. For the Lakers, they have to be able to bounce back from this loss and try to forget about this game, so they won’t let it affect any future games. The Nuggets will play the Memphis Grizzlies on October 27th, and the Lakers next game will be on October 26th against the Phoenix Suns.
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