The Denver Nuggets had plenty of chances to beat the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday night.
Instead, they fell 127-125 in an OT heartbreaker.
And while the Nuggets made a lot of poor and curious decisions down the stretch, they didn’t have any help from the referees.
On Sunday the league released the last two minute report for the game and a key call with 9.2 seconds left incorrectly went against Denver. The officials on the court said Spencer Jones fouled Austin Reaves with the Nuggets up 116-113. But Jones actually swiped at the basketball clean and no such infraction should’ve been whistled.
The Last Two Minutes Report for Lakers-Nuggets determined that Austin Reaves should not have been awarded two free throws with 9.2 seconds remaining in regulation, ruling that Spencer Jones had a clean strip. pic.twitter.com/BtENE3kbCd
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) March 15, 2026
Right after the call it’s hard to see who would’ve ended up with possession, but it likely would’ve been a jump-ball.
Instead, Reaves did something heroic a few moments later. Still down three points, he made one free throw then intentionally missed the second to gather the rebound. He scored with 1.9 seconds remaining to force overtime tied at 118.
Luka Doncic would hit a game-winner in the extra time, giving the Lakers the 127-125 victory. Los Angeles improved to 42-25 and the current No. 3 seed in the Western Conference. The Nuggets are now 41-27 and sit with the No. 5 seed.
The Lakers also won the season-series over Denver, clinching the tiebreaker if the two finish with the same regular season record.
Again, there’s a lot to unpack with what went wrong for the Nuggets in the loss. But if one key foul call had correctly gone their way, this likely would be a different conversation.
