On a festive Tuesday night at STAPLES Center, the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Denver Nuggets. 112-103, behind an impressive second half from rookie Kyle Kuzma and a vintage fourth quarter from Isaiah Thomas.
""It was a tough, physical game, and we were the tougher team, so we definitely took that from them," Thomas said after the game, though he laughed off the suggestion of the Nuggets and Lakers being a rivalry game.
Even if it wasn't a traditional rivalry game, the night began with a chorus of boos raining down on Denver's Jamal Murray during the introductions. The Lakers' faithful carried on expressing their distaste of the Nuggets' point guard throughout the game. In the latter stages, the crowd even took to chanting "Murray sucks," even when the Nuggets' guard wasn't at the free throw line or holding the basketball.
"Definitely heard the crowd, especially when we're shooting free throws," Lakers point guard Lonzo Ball said after the game. "I don't know if I like them screaming when we're shooting free throws, but I mean, I like the energy they had."
The aggressive atmosphere was reminiscent of Dwight Howard's visits to STAPLES Center following his decision to ditch town a half-decade ago.
Tuesday's game on the court, though, was anything but straight forward.
In the first quarter, the Lakers looked like they had revenge on their minds and jumped out to 13-point lead with Brook Lopez and Julius Randle leading the way with 11 points apiece. Lopez hit his first three trio of-pointers, and the Lakers looked ready to ride a supercharged STAPLES Center crowd to a victory.
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Only, the second quarter featured 12 minutes where the Lakers missed 11 of their 12 three-point attempts and 15 of their 18 field goal attempts overall. At one point, the Lakers went nearly five and a half minutes without scoring a single point. Over that barren stretch for the purple and gold, the unusually loud first half home crowd lost its verve in concert with the Lakers losing their lead.
By halftime, the Lakers were caught up in a back-and-forth contests that saw LA leading by a single point entering the locker room.
After the intermission, the Lakers simply did not match Denver's energy, with Wilson Chandler particularly hot on the evening for the Nuggets. Chandler made 10 of his first 14 field goals and entered the fourth quarter with a game high 23 points and with his team leading by five points.
The Lakers would have trailed by significantly more entering the final quarter of regulation had rookie Kyle Kuzma not caught fire and scored 16 points in the third quarter. After only scoring two points over the first two quarters, the 21-year-old made three of five three-point attempts over his 12-minute shift in the third period.
"After that first half, I missed a couple of shots, I just tried to refocus on mechanics," Kuzma said after the game.
On the final play of the third quarter, however, Kuzma seemed to roll his ankle, and the rookie momentarily went to the locker room and had his right ankle taped up and was available to play.
"It kind of hurts now, but I just got x-rays, so I'm good," Kuzma confirmed that he had not suffered a fracture. "[I have to] just wake up tomorrow, see how it feels, run around."
While Kuzma was away, Randle scored five points in the first four minutes of the fourth quarter to lift the Lakers. When Ball hit his first three-pointer of the night with 7:40 remaining in the game, the Lakers took a 90-89 lead. Ball had missed his first six attempts from distance, but he hit a big shot for the Lakers in the fourth quarter.
"He hit a really big three for us, which is one of my favorite things about Lonzo: he likes the pressure of the game," Lakers coach Luke Walton said after the game. "But he also had eight assists and nine rebounds."
By the time Kuzma returned to the game with 6:50 remaining in the contest, the Lakers led by three points. Noticeably hobbling, the Flint, Michigan native nevertheless proceeded to hit his first three shots and helped the Lakers take a seven-point lead with five minutes remaining in the game.
The Nuggets continued to battle, but Isaiah Thomas wasn't interested in letting Denver back into the game. The guard that made his name scoring points in the fourth quarter came through in the clutch with 12 of his 23 points in the deciding quarter.
"If I play in the fourth quarter, I'll play and do things like I used to do," Thomas responded when asked if he's feeling like the "King in the Fourth" again. "[Walton's] giving me the opportunity to play and make plays, and the easy part is going out there and doing it."
Late in the game, Denver intentionally fouled Ball to mark the first time the Lakers had to deal with a "Hack-a-Lonzo" situation. Ball is an awful free throw shooter at 48.2 percent, so it's a wonder that more teams have not employed the strategy. The Lakers' point guard missed both foul shots.
"I'm not surprised at all," Ball responded when asked about the strategy to intentionally foul him, while also saying he had never dealt with that situation at any level of his career. "If I’m on the court, teams are probably going to do that. I just got to knock down free throws."
After that, the STAPLES Center crowd decided to voice its disapproval of Murray, who had drawn the ire of the Lakers' fans by his actions in previous meetings between the two teams. Eventually, Randle and Nikola Jokic had to be separated, and both earned technical fouls for their troubles.
Randle claimed Jokic tugged at his arm, and the Lakers' bruising forward did not appreciate the Nuggets' big man attempting the cheap tactic. Ultimately, cooler heads prevailed and no one was ejected from the game.
If nothing else, Tuesday night's game was chalk full of entertainment.
Notes: Chandler finished as the Nuggets' leading scorer with 26 points, while Murray tabbed 18 points, six rebounds and four assists in the loss. Both Randle and Kuzma finished the night with 26 points, 13 rebounds and two assists.
