The streamers eventually would fall Wednesday night. The huge cheers for Bronny James coming off the bench in the fourth quarter were bound to happen. Randy Newman’s “I Love L.A.” would play.
It was fated by the time fans started filing into the building.
The latest chapter in the Lakers-Nuggets rivalry was going to look a lot different, with word that Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray weren’t going to play buzzing around before the game.
The script was flipped, the Lakers and their fans used to seeing Nuggets come off the injury report ahead of games against them. But without Denver’s best players, all it was going to take from the Lakers was a focused performance to get the job done.
Read more: Lakers don’t shy away from ‘naked’ opportunities in blowout win over Spurs
By midway through the first quarter, Luka Doncic was so good that the bar for “focused performance” suddenly had been significantly lowered.
The Lakers handled the Denver Nuggets 120-108, Doncic’s monster first quarter enough to cover up for sluggish, sloppy play that might’ve cost them if Jokic and Murray were on the floor.
Doncic scored 21 points in the quarter, including nine in the first three minutes, to give the Lakers a lead that grew to 30 in the second half before they fully eased off the gas.
The Nuggets outscored the Lakers by 16 in the fourth quarter and still lost by 12, Doncic able to spend the final 12 minutes on the bench with the Lakers set to host Milwaukee on Thursday.
It’ll be the Lakers’ sixth game in eight days. They’re 3-2 in the first five.
Doncic finished with 31 points, nine rebounds and seven assists. And while he cooled off significantly after the first quarter, his presence again allowed the Lakers (43-25) to take and make wide-open threes all game.
Dorian Finney-Smith, Gabe Vincent and Dalton Knecht combined to make 10 threes on 17 attempts.
While the Lakers earned a 2-2 split with Denver this season, a valuable asset in a tight West race in which they should finish ahead of the Nuggets in tiebreaker scenarios, it didn’t really offer much insight as to where either team stands heading into the final four weeks of the season.
Read more: Luka Doncic scores 33 and gritty Lakers beat Suns to end four-game losing skid
Before the game, Nuggets coach Michael Malone forcefully said that Jokic and Murray weren’t “resting” as Denver missed its dynamic duo for the second straight game. Both are dealing with injuries, he said.
Without them, Denver didn’t have a chance, the Lakers riding a dominant quarter from Doncic during which he was able to get whatever he wanted near the basket or behind the three-point line.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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