DENVER — Lakers coach JJ Redick often makes reference to a lyric from an old Jay-Z song: “It was all good just a week ago.”
Entering Friday’s game against the Denver Nuggets, things were not good for the Lakers. They entered on a three-game losing streak. They were down three starters in LeBron James, Rui Hachimura and Jaxson Hayes. A fourth, Luka Doncic, was sitting out on the second night of a back-to-back. Two more key rotation players, Dorian Finney-Smith and Gabe Vincent, also were unavailable as they managed long-term injuries.
A week ago, the Lakers were mostly healthy, flying to Boston on an eight-game winning streak. A week ago, they were climbing up the standings, not sliding.
But even if the personnel didn’t mirror the Lakers from a week ago, at least the energy did Friday, the team pushing the Denver Nuggets over four quarters before making one too many mistakes in a 131-126 loss.
Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic ran a pick-and-roll, opening Murray up for a clean look at a three-pointer with 5.6 seconds left. Like he has so many times against the Lakers, the Nuggets point guard hit the big shot.
Austin Reaves, who capped his rookie season with a 31-point triple-double in Denver, nearly led the Lakers (40-25) to the upset, scoring 37 along with 13 assists and eight rebounds. Dalton Knecht, starting near his hometown, had his most points since mid-November with 32 and Shake Milton scored 16 off the bench.
But all five starters finished in double figures for Denver (43-24), the Lakers running out of time as much as they ran out of steam.
The Lakers had a chance to force overtime, but they couldn’t get the inbound pass to Reaves, with Russell Westbrook getting the steal and dunking in the final seconds.
Before the game, Redick again sounded optimistic about the Lakers’ getting more help over the next week, when the team plays five games in Los Angeles, including a pair of back-to-backs Sunday and Monday and Wednesday and Thursday to wrap a stretch where they’ll play six times in eight days.
They’re the first team since 2022 to have six games in eight days, the Lakers playing a makeup game with the San Antonio Spurs that was postponed during the wildfires in January.
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