The Los Angeles Lakers registered one of their most impressive wins of this season on Saturday, blowing out the Denver Nuggets 123-100 at Ball Arena. Luka Doncic led the way for the Lakers with a spectacular performance and declared postgame that this team has what it takes to win it all.
“Our goal is to win the championship,” Doncic said. “That’s our only goal. And I think we have the team for that.”
While the Lakers may or may not have enough to win it all, what we can say for sure is that they will give opponents plenty of headaches if Doncic plays as well as he did here. The 25-year-old recorded 32 points (10-22 FG), 10 rebounds, seven assists, four steals, and one block against the Nuggets.
Doncic set the tone early for the Lakers in this one, with 16 points in the first quarter alone. He sliced and diced that Nuggets defense at will and looked to be back to his best at last.
Doncic wasn’t the only Laker to impress on the night, as pretty much everyone on the team brought their A-game too. LeBron James had 25 points (11-19 FG), nine rebounds, five assists, one steal, and three blocks while Austin Reaves put up 23 points (7-13 FG), four rebounds, seven assists, and one block.
As if Doncic, James, and Reaves going off wasn’t enough, Rui Hachimura also recorded 21 points (7-12 FG), four assists, and one steal. If the Lakers can get this kind of production from these four, they will be very hard to beat.
What was also so impressive about this display by the Lakers was their defense. They held the Nuggets to just 40% shooting from the field and forced 22 turnovers. The Lakers managed to keep Nikola Jokic quiet too, as the reigning MVP had just 12 points (2-7 FG), 13 rebounds, 10 assists, and one steal.
The biggest issue when it came to these Lakers was the fact that they don’t have a starting-caliber big man and Jokic was supposed to dominate for that very reason. They smothered him, though, by throwing multiple bodies at him and it will be interesting to see if this strategy works moving forward as well.
Getting back to the man of the hour, Lakers head coach JJ Redick stated pregame that he told Doncic to have a ‘blackout episode’ against the Nuggets. Redick wanted the five-time All-Star to scream at no one in particular and act like the killer he is. Safe to say, he got exactly what he asked for.
Doncic was fired up in this game and even got a technical for complaining about a no-call. That’s when you knew he was well and truly back, although Redick wouldn’t want him to get too many technicals moving forward.
Doncic stated in his courtside interview postgame that he finally felt like himself in this game against the Nuggets and that should scare the rest of the NBA. The team that should be particularly scared at the moment is the one the Lakers take on next, the Dallas Mavericks.
The Lakers and Mavericks will face off at Crypto.com Arena on Tuesday at 10 PM ET and you better believe Doncic will be on a mission in that contest. He will be determined to make a statement against his former team and expect to see some Luka Magic.
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