The Los Angeles Lakers got the best of their 2020 Western Conference Finals foes on Thursday night, beating the Denver Nuggets 114-93. The Lakers were actually down at halftime, ending the 3rd quarter with a 15-0 run. They never let their foot off the pedal after that, extending their lead (and then some) in the final frame.
Here’s our recap of the game.
Player of the game – Dennis Schröder
To be clear, the true player of the game is LeBron James. He ends with a triple-double with 27 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists with a team-high box plus/minus. However, this wouldn’t be fun if we just gave the player of the game to LeBron every game like we probably should.
The Lakers were the best during this game when they were out running on offense after being disruptive on defense. Most of this happened in the second half, with the energy being led by the speedy Dennis Schröder. He ends with 21 points (second-leading scorer), helping out with scoring while Anthony Davis had an off game on offense. He also had arguably the play of the game, and it didn’t even involve scoring.
— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) February 5, 2021
Stat of the game – 16 offensive rebounds
Although the Lakers ended up demolishing the Nuggets with their pace in most of the second half, it really seemed like they were going to lose this game for most of the night due to their low energy (a common theme for most of the games this season). The low energy was resulting in rebounds bouncing right through different Lakers players into the Nuggets’ hands, leaving the Nuggets with 16 offensive rebounds and 15 second-chance points to go with them. The Nuggets aren’t necessarily a big team, so the offensive rebounds are definitely discouraging.
Quote of the night – “Heart of a lion”
This was Anthony Davis’ words after the game about Talen Horton-Tucker, courtesy of Ryan Ward of Lakersdaily.com. THT has 17 points, three steals, three rebounds, and two assists off the bench. He even came in third in the Lakers’ box plus/minus in the game (+17), third only to Anthony Davis and LeBron James (+21 each).
Anthony Davis on THT: "We trust him. … He's a young player that wants to learn, wants to get better. … Heart of a lion."
— Ryan Ward (@RyanWardLA) February 5, 2021
What’s next?
The Lakers will welcome the Detroit Pistons to town next, as they try and avenge the terrible 107-92 loss to the Pistons last Thursday. The game will be at 7:00 p.m. PST on Saturday night.
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