The Los Angeles Lakers couldn’t keep their winning ways going against the Denver Nuggets, falling to a hard-fought 120-113 loss to their former Playoff rivals. This loss impeded the Lakers’ attempts at charging up the standings, as they’re stuck at No. 6 with a 37-25 record, 1.5 games behind the No. 5-seeded Nuggets, who extended their lead over LA.
The Lakers were led by Luka Doncic’s 27 points (11-24 FG), 11 rebounds, seven assists, and four steals, while LeBron James contributed 16 points (7-11 FG) and eight assists despite sustaining a late-game elbow injury. The team competed aggressively on defense and tried to overcome a 2-15 start, which gave the Nuggets an early 13-point lead that the Lakers couldn’t overturn.
Despite the Lakers making it a one-possession game in crunch time, the Nuggets eked out the win, led by Jamal Murray’s 28 points (8-17 FG) and Nikola Jokic’s 28 points (10-15 FG), 12 rebounds, and 13 assists.
While the loss reminded many Laker fans of their struggles against top-tier opponents this season, it seems head coach JJ Redick had quite a few positives to take home from this loss. He shared compliments about the Lakers’ on-court resilience and guarding of Jokic during his post-game interview.
“Our group showed a lot of resiliency tonight, did some really good things. The full front on Jokic is difficult with their roster this year. They just have a lot more shooting out there. Not as many guys you can sag off and protect that over-the-top pass.”
“I do think he’s a fantastic player, he had 28-13-12. I thought we did a good job battling him. Our smalls, both as low men when we doubled and on him when we were switching groups, they did a fantastic job of being physical and turning it over. We didn’t come up with a rebound and I think we did some good things tonight.”
“Our group showed a lot of resiliency tonight.”
JJ Redick talks to the media after the #Lakers fall to the Nuggets, losing 120-113. #LakeShow pic.twitter.com/cKHLO38am3
— Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) March 6, 2026
Redick is known to sometimes be excessively harsh or critical of his team, so it’s good to see him recognize the effort they put forth in this loss. The Lakers have been one of the best clutch teams in the NBA all season, a strength that was reflected in their play during the fourth quarter. However, the damage was already done as the Lakers ran out of time before being able to complete an impressive comeback.
This was just the second game between the two teams this season, with the first coming in January 2026. The Lakers walked out as 115-107 winners behind a Doncic triple-double with 38 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists. However, Jokic missed that game due to injury, so it wasn’t a fair estimation of what a matchup between these two teams could look like.
It’s not hard to imagine that the Lakers and Nuggets could meet in the first round of the Playoffs in the 3-6 or the 4-5 matchup, given how close the West standings are right now. While a win was the end goal, Redick will be pleased to see encouraging signs on how his team would fare against the Nuggets if a first-round series came to pass.
Denver has a 39-24 record so far this season, but a caveat to this game is that the Nuggets are still without Aaron Gordon, while the Lakers lost Deandre Ayton to injury.
Hopefully, the positives Redick can draw from this game serve the franchise well going forward. They face the Indiana Pacers tonight at 10:30 P.M. ET on the second leg of a back-to-back. The Pacers are on a seven-game losing streak and have the second-worst record in the NBA this season, so the Lakers will go into this clash and be confident about getting a good result.
