Nuggets waste 12-point halftime lead in blowout loss to Lakers

After Monday’s game against the Pistons was postponed, the Nuggets came into Thursday’s primetime matchup with the Lakers as well-rested as they’ve been since the season began — and they looked like it through a dazzling first-half road performance against the Lakers. The Nuggets came out hot, scoring 58 points against the team that disposed of them in the Western Conference Finals last season.

The Nuggets had made their statement — but the final word belonged to the Lakers.

“We hang our hats on our defense,” Lakers star LeBron James said. “We’re the No. 1 defensive team in the league, and we want to continue that.”

Consider the point made.

The Lakers shut the Nuggets’ offense almost completely down, limiting them to only 35 points after halftime, while putting the game away only minutes into the fourth quarter with a 19-0 run.

The Lakers finished the game on a dominant, 46-18 run that made the Nuggets’ first half a distant memory. While James scored 27 points to go along with 10 rebounds and 10 assists to notch his 96th career triple-double and pass Wilt Chamberlain for third-place all-time in made field goals, it was the unlikely pair of Dennis Schroder and Talen Horton-Tucker that powered the Lakers’ offense.

Both players were aggressive at the point of attack, slashing to the basket while the Nuggets scrambled to keep up. By the time time it was all over, the duo combined for 38 points on 15-for-21 (.714) shooting, and the Nuggets were left to consider what might have been in another disheartening loss to the defending champs.

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NEXT UP: Nuggets (12-9) at Kings (10-11) | Saturday, Feb. 6 at 3:00 pm (TV: NBATV)

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TEAM NOTES

• The Nuggets shot 21-for-48 (.438) from the field in the first half, and only 15-44 (.341) in the second as the Lakers’ defense put the clamps on Denver’s offense.

• JaMychal Green drew the start Thursday as coach Michael Malone tried to match the Lakers’ size and physicality. Green may have been the Nuggets’ best player against the Lakers, scoring 14 points on 5-of-10 shooting and grabbing eight rebounds in 28 minutes while being one of only three Nuggets to shoot 50 percent from the field (Monte Morris, 7-for-10 and rookie Zeke Nnaji, 1-for-2).

• Unusually sloppy with the ball under duress from Lakers defenders, the Nuggets had 15 turnovers on Thursday, and only 19 assists.

• Table the “Will Barton or Michael Porter, Jr.” discussions for a day; both players were ineffective on either side of the ball Thursday night. Barton logged only nine points, four assists and two rebounds on 3-for-8 (.375) shooting in 36 minutes, and Porter was arguably even worse, going 3-for-10 (.300) in 20 minutes off the bench, including 0-for-4 from three-point range. One of those attempts was even blocked — from behind.

• The Nuggets have won only four of their 13 meetings (including postseason) with the Lakers since LeBron James first donned Lakers’ purple-and-gold.

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PLAYER NOTES

• Jamal Murray scored 20 points on 7-for-17 (.412) shooting to lead the team for the first time in 16 games, but the 20 points was the lowest total for a Nuggets’ leading scorer all season.

• Paul Millsap simply doesn’t match up well against the Lakers, and it showed in a 3-for-13 (.231) shooting performance that included a woeful 0-for-5 from behind the arc.

• Isaiah Hartenstein was the only player that didn’t get off the bench against Utah on Sunday, but against a bigger Lakers frontcourt, Hartenstein earned 10 minutes off the bench on Thursday, scoring three points to go along with four rebounds, an assist and a steal. Unfortunately, he also committed three fouls — roughly one every three minutes.

• Facundo Campazzo would have likely played a bigger role on Thursday, but knee pain sidelined him after only two minutes of play. Campazzo’s exact injury wasn’t revealed, but was not expected to be serious.

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THE FINAL WORD

“They just ran us in that second half — layups, dunks.” — Jamal Murray, on the Lakers’ 68-point second half, in which they outscored the Nuggets by 33

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INJURY WATCH

• Facundo Campazzo (knee) left the Feb. 5 game and did not return.

• Gary Harris (left thigh strain) left the Jan. 31 game and did not return. He is day-to-day.

• P.J. Dozier (right hamstring strain) has been out since Jan. 26. He is day-to-day.

• Greg Whittington (left knee) underwent arthroscopic surgery on Jan. 19 and was expected to miss four-to-six weeks.

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ROTATION (MINUTES)

Starters:
G Jamal Murray (37)
F Will Barton (36)
F-C JaMychal Green (28)
F Paul Millsap (32)
C Nikola Jokic (35)

Bench:
G Monte Morris (26)
F Michael Porter, Jr. (20)
C-F Isaiah Hartenstein (10)
C-F Bol Bol (3)
F Vlatko Cancar (3)
G R.J. Hampton (3)
G Markus Howard (3)
F-C Zeke Nnaji (3)
G Facundo Campazzo (2)

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