LOS ANGELES — When the Los Angeles Lakers trailed the Denver Nuggets by eight with five minutes to play in regulation Saturday night, an attempt for a turnaround may have felt heavier than that.
After all, the Lakers were at home, on national television playing for a regular-season tiebreaker and had blown a 17-point lead while jacking up the minutes of their best players. And these were the Nuggets, a team many have talked themselves into believing is a primary Western Conference challenger because of their 2023 championship and subsequent Game 7 semifinal exits the last two postseasons — not to mention eliminating the Lakers in 2023 and 2024.
But Los Angeles found 20 points in those last five minutes of regulation, capped by Austin Reaves joining Luka Dončić in the pantheon of all-time great second-chance points off missed free throws, to force the Lakers’ first overtime game of the season. Dončić then won it in overtime, not just with a game-winning field goal but also with a blocked shot of his former Dallas Mavericks teammate Tim Hardaway Jr.’s desperation 3-point attempt.
Saturday night’s 127-125 overtime win against Denver was another clutch time win for the Lakers. This one came against what is proving to be a bad clutch-time team in the Nuggets, who are only 17-18 this season in contests that feature a margin of less than five points at any point in the last five minutes of the game.
Not only did the Lakers stare down the Nuggets in the clutch, but they did so against a Nuggets starting lineup that had outscored opponents by 15.7 points per 100 possessions in the 172 minutes that Jamal Murray, Christian Braun, Cameron Johnson, Aaron Gordon and Nikola Jokić have shared the floor together this season. Perhaps that’s not a significant sample yet, but that’s still the lineup many believed would be among the Western Conference’s most powerful.
The spectacular scoring displays by Reaves (32 points on 12-of-21 shooting) and Dončić (30 points, 11 rebounds, 13 assists, one steal and three blocks) eclipsed the performances of Denver’s All-Stars. Jokić had a triple-double (24 points, 16 rebounds and 14 assists) and five steals, but he did not consistently dominate the game, let alone shut it down. Murray, on the other hand, was shut down. After making the first shot of the game, Murray missed each of his next 13, finishing with five points on 1-of-14 shooting before fouling out in overtime.
Of Murray’s 579 career games where he attempted at least 10 field goals (including playoffs), Saturday night was tied for his worst field-goal percentage (7.1). If that sounds familiar, it should — the Lakers did something similar to Anthony Edwards in a blowout win earlier this week against the Minnesota Timberwolves, holding Edwards to a woeful 2-of-15 shooting from the field.
The Lakers have now taken the regular-season series from the Nuggets in the same week that they completed a season sweep of the Timberwolves, the team that upset them in the Western Conference quarterfinals last spring. This was a Los Angeles team that spent part of this season being one of the worst good teams ever, sporting a negative point differential despite a win percentage above .600 while lacking statement wins.
The Lakers are now finding those statement wins. In addition to beating two potential playoff opponents last week, Los Angeles was able to blow out the New York Knicks on March 8. The other victories on this five-game win streak included necessary flexes over bad teams, with Dončić scoring 22 first-quarter points against the visiting Indiana Pacers and then inciting a trash-talk incident against Matas Buzelis and the Chicago Bulls on the way toward 51 points — his first 50-point game in more than two years — and a near triple-double (10 rebounds and nine assists).
After finishing with 51 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists Thursday against the Chicago Bulls, Luka Dončić (77) had a triple-double, 30 points, 11 rebounds and 13 assists in an overtime win Saturday against the Denver Nuggets. (Gary A. Vasquez / Imagn Images)
Dončić is playing his best basketball, Reaves is establishing health and LeBron James is fitting in just fine.
James missed a week to nurse multiple injuries following the Lakers’ March 5 loss at Denver, a game which the Nuggets outscored the Lakers by five points in the 22 minutes that James, Dončić and Reaves shared the floor. When James came back Thursday against the Bulls, the Lakers outscored the Bulls by 25 points in the 20 minutes that their three best players shared the court — the highest differential of the season. And the Lakers outscored the Nuggets by five points in the 26 minutes that James, Dončić and Reaves shared the floor, with the all-important clutch-time minutes representing the final push into the black.
Lakers head coach JJ Redick discussed how the team might be “coalescing right now in a really nice way” following Saturday night’s overtime win. It’s not just because his three best players are finding ways to complement and not overlap each other. The Lakers have new veterans in center Deandre Ayton and Marcus Smart, who Redick refers to as a “6-foot-4 power forward that can guard multiple positions.”
Ayton has been criticized often this season for his inconsistent motor, aloofness and habit of questioning his role. But there he was in overtime, holding the line against Jokić when the Lakers couldn’t quite trust backup Jaxson Hayes or former starting forward Rui Hachimura to do it. The Lakers having Ayton and Hayes this year at center instead of just rolling out (and eventually canceling) Hayes as a starter makes their team more postseason-viable. Ayton told The Athletic on numerous occasions that he just wants to get to the playoffs, and that he believes that the Lakers have a roster fit for a postseason setting.
Like Ayton, Smart has played in the NBA Finals. After two seasons with the Memphis Grizzlies and Washington Wizards, Smart has re-established himself as a key X-factor who can perform around star players. Smart runs hot and cold with his shooting, but his willingness to fire 3s is a swing factor.
Saturday was his third game of the season where he attempted at least 10 3s, with Jokić on Smart often as an attempt to induce such attempts from the career 32.5 percent shooter. But Smart burned the Nuggets by making five of them while also having his third game of the season with at least five steals. Smart can be the kind of player who will impact the Lakers in the playoffs the way Dorian Finney-Smith did last season.
“It’s obvious when he’s not out there, and he’s missed,” Redick said of Smart.
These battles with teams such as the Nuggets and Timberwolves have felt like playoff games this week. The minutes reflect that; rotations have shown that. Reaves, Dončić, and the 41-year-old James were all north of 40 minutes Saturday. Smart was at 35 minutes. Perimeter reserves Luke Kennard and Jake LaRavia didn’t make it to 20 minutes, with LaRavia clocking the third-fewest minutes he’s played all season. Jarred Vanderbilt was out of the rotation entirely.
The Lakers next face the Houston Rockets for two games as part of a six-game road trip, which also includes the Miami Heat, Orlando Magic, Detroit Pistons and Indiana Pacers. The Lakers, Rockets, Timberwolves and Nuggets were all separated by two games in the loss column as of Sunday.
The Lakers are on track to finish the regular season the same way they did a year ago: 50 wins, the third seed and a Pacific Division title. They may not be Western Conference contenders to some — that is reserved for the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs — but the Lakers should feel they are in a position to be among the best of the rest.
That means being expected to do what they couldn’t the last two seasons: win a playoff series.
“We still have a long way to go,” Redick said. “But (we are) certainly optimistic with how we’ve handled this stretch of games. Going eight of nine over this stretch … it’s big time.”