The Lakers’ loss and Doncic’s double injury: “Nobody feels sorry for us”

The Los Angeles Lakers fell to the Denver Nuggets in an almost heroic manner (131-126) despite arriving in Denver with seven absentees from their squad. Luka Doncic, hampered by a left calf injury and a right ankle sprain, did not even dress. His coach JJ Redick did not want to risk his physical problems getting worse and opted not to force the former Real Madrid player for the second consecutive night.

The situation for the Lakers is starting to get dramatic. Without Luka Doncic and without LeBron James, who missed his third straight game with a left groin injury and returned to Los Angeles without even traveling to Denver along with fellow injured players Rui Hachimura (left patellar tendinopathy) and Jaxson Hayes (right knee contusion), the Angelenos arrived in a bind.

Lakers in trouble

And they were going to be even more so after announcing before the game that Dorian Finney-Smith (left ankle), Gabe Vincent (left knee) and Trey Jemison III (illness) would also not be able to play. With so many absentees, they even had to resort to Bronny James, whom they called up from the G-League. He traveled to Denver and scored five points in the Lakers’ fourth straight loss.

And to make matters worse, Austin Reaves, despite not appearing on the injury report despite having an ice pack on his right wrist and hand after the loss to the Bucks, played hurt, but paradoxically was the best of his team with 37 points (4/10 three-pointers), eight rebounds, 13 assists and four steals, a statistical combination that only Magic Johnson and LeBron had achieved in the Lakers. He led along with Dalton Knecht (32 points and 5/13 three-pointers) and backup Shake Milton (16+5+3) the epic resistance of the Lakers.

A heroic resistance

Because after going down by 13 points, they did not let themselves go and got into the game in the third quarter with a 9-19 run (99-102), putting the Nuggets in trouble until they were just three points behind with 52 seconds left (123-126). That was as far as they could go, being finished off by a three-pointer from Jamal Murray (after taking advantage of a double block by Jokic) with 5.5 seconds left, and wrapping up the win with a steal and a dunk by Westbrook to leave their fans gasping with relief.