Luka Doncic’s buzzer beater helps Lakers beat Nuggets, win 5th straight – Orange County Register

LOS ANGELES — Entering Saturday, just 16 games remain before the playoffs begin. Just 2.5 games separate the third seed and the seventh seed in the Western Conference, the difference between a guaranteed spot in the first round and fighting for a spot into the field through the Play-In tournament.

“There’s a lot of teams that are bunched up with us, and we have a ridiculously hard six-game stretch here, starting tonight,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said before the Lakers faced the Denver Nuggets. “We’ve got to be great.”

If “great’ was what the Lakers (42-25) needed, then Austin Reaves and Luka Doncic’s execution on Saturday night was second to none in the Lakers’ 127-125 overtime victory over the Nuggets to win their fifth consecutive game.

Down two points with 5.2 seconds left after making the first of two free throws, Reaves purposely missed the second free throw off the front of the rim. The bounce of the ball landed Reaves’ way, and he floated the ball into the hoop off a running baseline shot to tie the game at 118, sending Crypto.com Arena into bedlam and their first taste of overtime basketball of the season.

Luka Doncic, a part of dueling triple-double efforts against Nikola Jokic, nailed a fadeaway jumper with 0.5 seconds left in overtime to win the game. Doncic recorded 30 points, 13 assists and 11 rebounds, while Reaves scored 32 points on 12-for-21 shooting, to go along with seven rebounds and six assists. Forward Aaron Gordon led the Nuggets with 27 points, while Jokic’s triple-double landed him with 24 points, 16 rebounds and 14 assists.

In overtime, Deandre Ayton’s hook shot with 1:12 to go off a LeBron James feed, provided the Lakers with a 122-120 lead. But after Gordon fired a 3-pointer to take the lead at the other end, veteran guard Marcus Smart drained his season-high-tying fifth 3-pointer of the game to take a 125-123 lead.

Jokic responded with a hook shot to tie the score at 125, and then Doncic sent the fans home happy with his shot over two converging Nuggets defenders. Smart had 21 points, third-best on the Lakers on Saturday.

The Lakers were up by as many as 17 points against the Nuggets, and the Lakers appeared to be on track to take temporary ownership of the third seed and claim the season series and potential tiebreaker over Denver.

The Nuggets used a successful challenge to push their way back into the game during the third quarter. Doncic forced a fourth foul on Denver forward Cameron Johnson on what would have been a three-point play. But Nuggets coach David Adelman challenged the play, turning Doncic’s shot – and a potential 12-point Lakers lead – into an offensive foul on the Slovenian star.

Jokic responded with a four-point play on the other end, drawing a foul from Jaxson Hayes on his 3-pointer at the top of the key, and intercepted an errant pass from Doncic on the following possession. One fast-break slam dunk later, and Jokic single-handedly brought the Lakers’ lead to 79-76 with 3:53 remaining in the third quarter.

As the period came to an end, Nuggets guard Bruce Brown sank a 3-pointer before blocking Hayes’ shot attempt at the other end of the floor. Doncic missed a second-chance 3 as the ball ended up in Jokic’s arms. The Serbian big man slung the ball three-quarters across the court to Brown, who flipped the ball in to the net to tie the game at 87-all heading into the fourth quarter.

Nuggets guard Tim Hardaway Jr. sank a 3-pointer from the corner to provide the Nuggets with what appeared to be the game-winning basket, then a 115-113 lead. Denver (41-27) fouled up three twice to try to avoid the Lakers making a game-tying 3-pointer.

But Reaves turned his second free throw into dramatics, a heroic shot and an overtime win.