26-16<\/a>) slowly are returning to full health as guard Austin Reaves\u2019 calf injury is \u201cprogressing well,\u201d Redick said before the game, and they hope he could play on the eight-game trip that will stretch until Feb. 3. Reaves is approaching the four-week point after aggravating his calf injury on Christmas Day.<\/p>\nFor the first time since the injury, Reaves went on a trip with the team. He blended seamlessly into the bench group, wearing head-to-toe black next to the coaches.<\/p>\n
On the other bench, Denver\u2019s injured superstar was dressed in a forest green suit. Nikola Jokic, the Nuggets\u2019 three-time most valuable player, has been sidelined because of a knee injury since Dec. 30. <\/p>\n
Three members of the Nuggets\u2019 season-opening starting rotation were sidelined Tuesday. Starting guard Christian Braun has been out since injuring an ankle Nov. 12, and Cameron Johnson has missed 15 games because of a knee injury. Backup center Jonas Valanciunas, who has missed the last 11 games because of a calf injury, sat next to Jokic.<\/p>\n
Denver (29-15) still had no problem controlling the first half, finishing the second quarter on a 14-3 run to claim a 14-point lead. Jamal Murray drained a three-pointer from almost three-quarters court at the buzzer to punctuate a chaotic final 35 seconds that was preceded by Doncic\u2019s 13th technical foul of the season and featured an 8-0 run for the Nuggets.<\/p>\n
For a team that had lost five of its last seven games and was beginning a difficult eight-game trip with the trade deadline looming in two weeks, the moment could have broken the Lakers. <\/p>\n
Instead, Doncic showed why he led the league in All-Star voting. After scoring 16 points on six-of-six shooting in the first quarter, Doncic started distributing to his teammates. He had nine points and four assists in the third quarter as the Lakers trimmed a 16-point deficit to two entering the fourth. Doncic scored or assisted on 11 unanswered Lakers points.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt showed the character of our team,\u201d Doncic said of how the Lakers responded to the end of the first half. \u201c\u2026 We just stayed together.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Lakers could have wilted when the Nuggets hit nine three-pointers in the first quarter too, Doncic said. But they calmly locked back in on defense and committed to the plan to blitz Murray, who scored 26 in the first half. Then Doncic continued his takeover. <\/p>\n
\u201cLuka, you can\u2019t turn the engine halfway with him,\u201d Redick said. \u201cOnce the engine\u2019s on, like he\u2019s in kill mode. And it\u2019s on me as a coach to make sure that everybody else is involved, and it\u2019s on him too, on the court, to make sure that. And truthfully, I think he\u2019s done a phenomenal job of that the last couple weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n
After Doncic\u2019s third-quarter domination, James tagged in and scored five consecutive points to end the quarter. He assisted on a basket by Timme on the Lakers\u2019 opening possession of the fourth quarter that tied the score 88-88. The Lakers outscored the Nuggets by 20 points when James was on the floor in the second half after he was held to just seven points with four turnovers in the first. <\/p>\n
While Doncic will return to the All-Star stage next month at Intuit Dome, James was not named a starter for the first time in 22 years. He will have to wait for a vote from coaches or a special selection from NBA commissioner Adam Silver to earn his 22nd All-Star honor.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiven the missed games early, wasn\u2019t surprised,\u201d Redick said, referring to James missing the first 14 games because of sciatica. \u201cI believe he\u2019ll be in the All-Star game.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DENVER\u00a0\u2014\u00a0The first time chants of \u201cLet\u2019s go, La-kers\u201d rang out in Ball Arena, Denver\u2019s rowdy home crowd booed…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":531906,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[38124,235736,1582,276,4160,8605,235735,1910,84514,2961,8604,3363,224,5337,3365,7198,449,5950,75570,101645],"class_list":{"0":"post-531905","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-assist","9":"tag-backup-center-jonas-valanciunas","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-coach","13":"tag-denver","14":"tag-first-time-chant","15":"tag-game","16":"tag-knee","17":"tag-la","18":"tag-lakers","19":"tag-lebron-james","20":"tag-los-angeles","21":"tag-losangeles","22":"tag-luka-doncic","23":"tag-nuggets","24":"tag-point","25":"tag-season","26":"tag-second-quarter","27":"tag-triple-double"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115932471284607938","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=531905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531905\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/531906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}