After fighting hard all game long, the undermanned Lakers fell in the final minute to the Nuggets and Jamal Murray once again.
An undermanned Lakers team fought more valiantly than anyone would have expected before coming up short in the final minute, falling to the Nuggets, 131-126.
The list of players out was nearly as long as the players available. LeBron James, Luka Dončić, Rui Hachimura, Dorian Finney-Smith, Jaxson Hayes, Gabe Vincent, Trey Jemison and Maxi Kleber were all out.
And still, the Lakers not only kept it close, they held a double-digit lead in the first half and fought back from a double-digit second-half deficit to storm back ahead in the fourth and make it a back-and-forth game to the final buzzer.
Austin Reaves scored 22 of his 37 points in the first half. He also dished 13 dimes and grabbed eight rebounds. Dalton Knecht ended with 32 points, shooting 48.1% from the field. Shake Milton pitched in with 16 points off the bench.
Jarred Vanderbilt had nine points to go with his seven rebounds, seven assists and three steals. The OG of the crew, Markieff Morris, scored a commendable seven points and grabbed five rebounds. Bronny James Jr. ended with five points.
The extremely short-handed Lakers jumped ahead by six and looked great to start. Austin and Vando were shouldering the offensive load early for the team. Denver fumbled the ball a few times and was not playing good defense, allowing Los Angeles to take advantage.
LA seemingly had all the momentum in their favor until former Laker Russell Westbrook was subbed into the game and brought energy to a lackadaisical Nuggets team. Dalton provided a lot of offense for the Lakers, scoring mostly in the paint with just one 3-pointer.
Despite Denver’s efforts to take over, Los Angeles kept the lead. The Lakers scored nine points, all on 3-pointers with Bronny draining one over Nikola Jokic.
At the end of the first, the purple and gold were up eight.
BRONNY FOR 3 #LakeShow pic.twitter.com/0rsSuurEyi
— Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) March 15, 2025
Denver started the second on an 8-0 run to get themselves back into the game with LA’s offense taking a dip while Austin was getting rest. Westbrook’s energy was giving the Nuggets life. As soon as Austin was back in, he drew a foul on Michael Porter Jr, and converted on both free throws.
Dalton drained his second 3-pointer of the half. Although LA was working hard, the Nuggets were still finding success and eventually took the lead.
Denver had taken over the momentum, jumping ahead by five. Vando put in the defensive work by stealing the ball from Jokic, leading to a dunk by Dalton. The referees were calling everything against the Lakers, leading to more foul calls than they’d like as they were so undermanned.
Austin was fouled again, this time by Jokic, and converted on the three-point play. LA struggled defensively but managed to keep it close with their offense, mostly Austin scoring all over the place.
At halftime, the Lakers were only down four.
Despite being down 6 of their 8 top rotation players, the Lakers are within 4 of fully healthy Denver at halftime, down 71-67.
Austin Reaves was fantastic, scoring 22 points with 10 assists and 5 rebounds in his 19 minutes.
— Mike Trudell (@LakersReporter) March 15, 2025
The Lakers began the second half with defensive breakdowns, leading to the Nuggets extending their lead to 12. Denver scored the ball much easier and comfortably this quarter, tallying 17 points to LA’s eight.
Just as the Nuggets thought they could create breathing room with their lead, Los Angeles answered and fought back to keep it a game. Vando’s energy and defense on Jokic led to him having three steals.
Austin picked up his 12th assist with a lob to Christian Koloko, who put in great minutes off the bench with six points. Shake pulled up for a jumper to add to his impressive offensive night. The Lakers went on a 13-4 run to pull within three to close out the third quarter.
Shake Milton got grabbed on a layup attempt that would have cut Denver’s lead to just 1, but didn’t get the call. The Nuggets scored on the other end to push the margin back to 5, but Jordan Goodwin managed a jumper to cut it to 102-99 with 12 minutes to play.
— Mike Trudell (@LakersReporter) March 15, 2025
The Lakers took the lead on the shoulders of Dalton, who scored six straight points. The Nuggets looked like a mess and rattled with this burst of excellent play from LA.
Denver finally scored on a dunk from Peyton Watson. The game was tied when Austin drained a 3-pointer as the shot clock was running out to put the Lakers back up. A wide-open three from Markieff added to LA’s lead.