DENVER (AP) – The bling and the banner were nice. What the Denver Nuggets really relished, though, was opening defence of the franchise’s first NBA title with a 119-107 win over the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday night.
“We can’t think about last year too much,” Jamal Murray said after the Nuggets followed the raising of their championship banner by dropping the hammer on the Lakers in the NBA’s season opener, which featured Nikola Jokic’s triple-double and LeBron James taking a few more breathers than normal.
Jokic said the Nuggets fed off the emotion from the pregame ceremony to jump out to an early 18-point lead, which held up even after the Lakers got within three points in the fourth quarter.
“I think we controlled the game the whole time,” said Jokic, who had 29 points, 13 rebounds and 11 assists. Murray added 21 points, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope scored 20, Aaron Gordon had 15 and Michael Porter Jr had 12.
All of LA’s starters also scored in double figures, led by James’ 21 points in 29 minutes – his playing time is being monitored at the start of his 21st season. “It helps,” Murray said with a smile.
James ended up playing about five fewer minutes than he’s used to. “I mean, I always want to be on the floor,” James said, “especially when you got an opportunity to win a game or feel like you can make an impact. But I guess there’s a system in place and I’ll follow it.”
James, the league’s oldest player at age 38, stressed, “I’m not surprised or upset” about the Lakers monitoring his minutes as the season gets going. Taurean Prince scored 18 points his his debut for the Lakers, his fifth team in nine seasons. Anthony Davis had 17 points, Austin Reaves 14 and D’Angelo Russell 11.
The Lakers trailed by 18 early but trimmed that deficit to 63-54 at halftime and used a 13-0 run spanning the third and fourth quarters to pull within 87-84 before Aaron Gordon stopped the run with a three-pointer. The Lakers never got closer.
After James’ basket got Los Angeles within 103-96 with just over five minutes remaining, the Nuggets called timeout and came out of it with a 10-3 run featuring three-pointers by Murray and Porter to put the Lakers away.
“We were trending in the right direction for a while there,” Lakers coach Darvin Ham said.
“Each quarter we had given up less and less and then they just kind of blew the game open.”
