On January 16, Beijing time, the NBA regular season, the Lakers challenged the Nuggets away. After four quarters of battle between the two sides, the Lakers lost 96-133 to the Nuggets on the road, suffering three consecutive losses.
In this game, the Nuggets tangled with the Lakers in the first quarter, and Jokic led the team to gradually widen the point difference in the second quarter. In the third quarter, at 4:59, the difference between the two sides has reached 20 points as Gordon scores, and the Nuggets are completely in control of the initiative on the court. The Lakers failed to narrow the point gap further in the follow-up, and the Nuggets extended their lead to more than 30 points in the fourth quarter, and the game completely went into garbage time.
Losing this game, the Lakers' record reached 21 wins and 22 losses, the winning rate fell to more than 50% again, and the team's morale recently fell to the bottom. In this game, in order to be able to deal with Jokic, Vogel put Howard on the starting line, hoping that he would contain his opponents on the inside. However, Jokic was unstoppable, teasing Howard with his footsteps many times. He slashed a triple-double of 17 points, 12 rebounds and 13 assists. It was his eighth triple-double of the season, behind Westbrook, and his career triple-double number also reached 65, equaling Harden's record, and the two were tied for 7th in history.
On the Lakers side, James had 25 points and 9 rebounds, Westbrook had 19 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists, and Howard had 13 points and 3 rebounds. In addition, the Lakers did not have the rest of the players to score in double figures, and all three shooting rates were crushed by the Nuggets.
Before this game, Wei Shao's performance on the field was continuously sluggish, he had scored no doubles in the past three games, and once rushed to the top of the global hot search list, which was infinitely ridiculed by fans. Westbrook's form has rebounded in this game, playing nearly 26 minutes 7-of-15, 4-of-4 free throws and 19 points and 5 rebounds. While this is still a bit of a gap with his average performance per game, at least his contribution to the team is no longer a negative effect.
What is even more rare is that Wei Shao once again strictly controlled the number of his mistakes in this game, and once again achieved 0 mistakes in the whole game. This is the third 0 turnover in the last 5 games of Westbrook, the number of 0 turnovers this season is more than in the past 8 years, and he has only made 4 mistakes in the last 5 games. Previously, Wei Shao said that he had sacrificed a lot for the team, and it did not seem to be a lie, and he was also moving in a good direction.
In the third quarter of the game, Westbrook and Gordon also clashed. At 6 minutes and 12 seconds into the game, Westbrook broke through the basket with the ball and collided with Gordon. A heated argument ensued between the two, and the two sides nearly had a physical altercation. Their respective teammates gradually pulled the two apart to avoid further deterioration. In the end, the referees each played 50 boards, and the two each received a technical foul.
According to the schedule, the Lakers' next game will be at home to the Jazz next Tuesday morning Beijing time.
(Text/Yuwen Basketball)