LA Lakers (1-0) vs Denver Nuggets (0-1)
When: Sunday, Sept 20th at 7:30pm.
Where: AdventHealth Arena in Orlando, Florida
TV: TNT / Radio: ESPN LA 710
Injuries:
LAL: None
Denver: None
LAL :
126.0 - points per game
114.0 - points against
53.0 - Field goal %
Denver:
114.0 - points per game
126.0 - points against
49.4 - field goal %
Individual Leaders: LAL/Den -
Anthony Davis 37.0 / Two Tied at 21.0 -Points
Anthony Davis 10.0 / Michael Porter 10.0 - Rebounds
LeBron James 12.0 / Jamal Murray 5.0 - Assists
Key Match-ups:
Anthony Davis vs Paul Millsap
LeBron James vs Jerami Grant
Dwight Howard vs Nikola Jokic
Jamal Murray vs Rajon Rondo
Michael Porter vs Kyle Kuzma
Keep an eye on:
How Denver Deals With The Lakers Physicality: in this game will tell a lot. The Lakers punched the Nuggets in the mouth from the opening tip and the Nuggets never recovered. LA went at Nikola Jokic with Anthony Davis offensively and with Dwight Howard leading the way, swarmed him defensively. Jokic became frustrated with the physicality and lack of calls from the refs and his game suffered because of it. After LA dealt with Jokic, they put their focus on Murray and he eventually responded to the physicality from the Lakers, the same way Jokic did. The result was foul trouble for both which meant not spending nearly the time on the floor needed to secure a win, and of course, the Lakers cruised to a game one victory.
Denver must stay poise through all of the physicality, lack of calls and runs from the Lakers and continue to execute on their end. Doing that will frustrate the Lakers and make them adjust. Think about it, with all that frustration from the physicality, Jokic and Murray still shot 15 of 24 from the floor and the Nuggets shot 49 percent from the field as a team. They were still able to execute. That's a positive Denver should take into game two. Problem is, LA is well aware that Denver was pretty efficient from the floor as well. Something will have to give.
