The Lakers again got a great offensive game from Anthony Davis and an efficient scoring night from LeBron James, but it was not enough as their outside shooting struggles continued and their defense and rebounding was not up to the task against Denver's front court. The result was a 112-105 Nuggets victory that drops the Lakers to 0-3 in the series and on the verge of being eliminated by Denver for the 2nd straight season.
On the positive side, Anthony Davis had another wonderful night, leading the Lakers with 33 points, 15 rebounds, and three assists, converting on 14 of his 23 shot attempts from the field and while holding his own defensively and on the backboards against a physical Nuggets team.
AD played with wonderful decisiveness and quickness offensively, diving into the creases of the defense and showing off great burst when attacking the rim off the dribble to score inside irrespective of who was defending him. By the end of the game, Davis often found himself completely surrounded by Nuggets defenders who were either going to force him to pass the ball out or foul him instead of letting him score.
Outside of AD, LeBron scored the ball well from two-point range but, like his teammates, was never able to find his range from behind the arc. LeBron made 12 of his 20 shot attempts overall to score 26 points, but he was just one of six from deep and saw the Nuggets consistently try to shrink the floor on him defensively -- much as they did Davis. LeBron also dished out nine assists and grabbed five rebounds on the night.
Even with LeBron and AD scoring efficiently and finding ways to the rim against a compressed Nuggets defense, it was the Nuggets who had the more balanced attack and found many more avenues to find success against the Lakers on both sides of the floor.
Offensively, Denver got strong performances from both Aaron Gordon and Michael Porter Jr. as a great counterbalances to the attention the Lakers sent towards Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray. Gordon led the Nuggets with 29 points on 12 of 18 shooting, with all of those baskets coming right at the rim. Gordon also grabbed 15 rebounds, five of those on the offensive glass where his combination of strength, quickness, and athleticism proved too dynamic for the Lakers to handle on the backboards.
As for Porter Jr., he scored 20 points on eight of 16 shooting, but his shot making and the timeliness of his shots made those points feel more damaging than the actual number implies. On several occasions Porter Jr. hit off the dribble jumpers that were very well contested, the type of dispiriting shots that are compounded because they often came in the midst of the type of run the Nuggets were on to take the lead and then keep the Lakers at arm's length.
Porter Jr. also added 10 rebounds, one of three Nuggets to grab double-digit rebounds with Gordon and Jokic (15), and contributing to another night in which Denver asserted themselves on the glass and made the Lakers pay for either being too small on the backline in their boxouts or not physical enough when they did have more size there. The Nuggets outrebounded the Lakers 55-45 overall, including grabbing 14 offensive rebounds that they converted into 19 points overall.
Beyond the rebounding, the ultimate difference in this game, however, was that Denver got standout performances from their secondary players while the Lakers simply did not get that same level of production from the equivalent talents on their team.
Austin Reaves did finish the night with 22 points on eight of 17 shooting, but several of those baskets and points came in the game's final minutes when Denver was up double figures. Credit to him for continuing to push and make the shots he did on those possessions, though, and the hope is that his final push can carry over into Game 4. The same could not be said for his backcourt mate, however. After struggling in Game 1 and then a bounce-back performance in Game 2, D'Angelo Russell missed all seven of his shot attempts in Game 3 and went scoreless overall in his 24 minutes of game action.
Overall, then, the Lakers just did not have enough this game. With Jokic and Murray still having very good games of their own and them winning on the margins in the ways they did with their rebounding and secondary scoring, the Lakers could not sustain their early game play to fend off Denver when they really pushed.
And with that, the Lakers are now down 3-0 and looking for answers. They will try to find them and be ready to extend the series when these teams meet again in Game 4 on Saturday.