Lakers solve Jokic for now, end Nuggets win streak thanks to great game plan

DENVER—The new-look Los Angeles Lakers had a game plan for Nikola Jokic and they used it to swarm the Denver Nuggets into a stunning hot streak-ending 123-100 loss.

The three-time MVP didn’t get many shots up because he struggled even to get touches, only taking seven shots from the field. JJ Redick shared some details pregame about how he would attack the Nuggets center, who is stringing together one of the greatest offensive seasons in NBA history, noting that he felt confident in the plan and if it was executed it would work out well. The Nuggets offense grinded to a halt because of the scheme which forced 20 turnovers, allowing the Lakers to get on the run for 33 points in transition.

The Lakers took the lead right away and never let it go, building all the way to 26 points in the fourth quarter at one moment before the Nuggets gave in.

So what was the plan?

Akin to some playoff schemes we’ve seen in the past that caused Joker to struggle, the Lakers packed the paint and swarmed the lanes. Most importantly, they did everything possible to keep Jokic from touching the ball.

“You try to limit his touches is what it comes down to but he’s so big and so smart… it’s hard,” Lakers coach Redick said pregame.

“They wouldn’t let them catch the ball. What’s the best way to stop players? Don’t let them touch it,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said postgame. “They did a hell of a job with that tonight.”

Jokic still finished with a triple-double—12 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists—but he also committed six turnovers. The 12 points marked his second-lowest scoring output of the season

“I thought our guys conviction to execute a game plan and stick to a game plan was excellent,” Redick said after the contest.

The positive news for Nuggets fans is that it took a postseason level of attention to slow them while the team was clearly playing like another regular season contest. The bad news is that some clear issues about the Nuggets’ construction popped up once again. The team has surrounded Joker with a lot of one-way players, all of whom are either way better on offense with deficiencies on defense or vice-versa.

How will that look in the playoffs? It’s hard to say. The Lakers still don’t have a clear guy to put on Jokic one-on-one but with Luka Doncic the math changes. Los Angeles can try to out-score the Nuggets on offense rather than focusing mostly on defense. Doncic, in his best game since joining the Lakers, scored a game-high 32 points, including 16 in the first quarter. LeBron James added 25, as one of four Lakers with over 20 points. The streak of the Nuggets owning the James and Anthony Davis Lakers comes to an end at 13-of-14 wins because the team changed everything about who they are in getting Doncic. Malone will have to cook up a new formula for this team because the opponents certainly have something way different now for Denver. Even so, with a kitchen sink being thrown at the Nuggets on Saturday—can the Lakers really do that four times unanswered in the postseason?

“That ultimately falls on me, to get a team ready to play. And so we were out-played tonight, we were out-coached tonight, “Malone said. “And for Nikola to only gets seven shots, should never be the case… I did a bad job preparing our team.”

The Nuggets’ nine-game win streak—their longest of the Jokic-Malone era—came largely against struggling teams. Now, they head on a four-game East Coast road trip starting Monday in Indiana. The matchup with the Lakers was one of 20 in the Nuggets final 26 games against teams over .500 and because of the result Denver drops back down into the third seed while Los Angeles is on the doorstep of fourth.

“We’re going on the road tomorrow, a very challenging, four-game road trip at Indy, at Milwaukee, at Detroit, at Boston. No one’s gonna be scared that the Denver Nuggets are coming to town, so we have to play a lot better than we did tonight,” Malone said. “We averaged 128 points a game on the nine-game win streak. Tonight we had 100 so when we’re not scoring, we’re not making shots, what are we going to do? That’s when you have to rely upon your defense. And it would just just a rough night all around for us, but we’ll watch some film or regroup, and hopefully will be better come next time.”