Lakers collapse in second half, fall to Nuggets

The Lakers led in the first half on Saturday night, but they were once again dominated by the Nuggets and lost embarrassingly.

Stop us if you’ve heard this before: the Denver Nuggets beat the Los Angeles Lakers 127-102, with a dominant second-half performance.

LeBron James ended with 18 points, seven assists, six rebounds and three steals. Austin Reaves had a strong performance with 19 points, six assists and three rebounds.

Anthony Davis struggled all game and ended with 14 points, 10 rebounds, three assists, three steals and two blocks. D’Angelo Russell pitched in with seven points and five assists. Dalton Knecht had nine points off the bench.

Both teams had an offensively heavy first half. The Nuggets shot 54% while the Lakers shot 50%. Each team ended that half with 23 rebounds and 19 assists.

The Nuggets struck first and the game was off to a fast pace. Austin scored early and started 5-5 from the field while both teams took turns with the lead.

Rui Hachimura, who was back in the starting lineup after missing a few games, did some of the dirty work. He tipped the ball out twice to give the Lakers more chances to score and had himself a dunk.

At the five-minute mark, the Lakers jumped ahead by two after a 3-pointer by Austin.

L.A.’s defense continued to be a struggle, but their offense was fluid. Max Christie made an instant impact off the bench with five quick points. At the end of the first, Los Angeles was down four.

Julian Strawther knocked down a 3-pointer to extend Denver’s lead to seven points to start the second. LeBron answered with a midrange shot.

Former Laker Russell Westbrook was up to seven assists, finding his teammates all over the court.

Dalton knocked down his first 3-pointer as he was left wide open from behind the arc. L.A. was within four again. A clear path foul on Westbrook resulted in LeBron converting on two free throws to make it a two-point game.

D’Lo drilled a 3-pointer and Gabe Vincent knocked down a midrange shot to put the Lakers up three. L.A.’s scoring run extended to 17-2 and their lead was eight.

Denver heated up and got it to within four until Rui answered with a 3-pointer.

As we’ve become accustomed to seeing whenever these two teams matchup, the Lakers kept the lead going into halftime, 63-57.

Denver opened the second half on an 8-0 run to take the lead by two. The Lakers struggled to get their offense going and couldn’t find any solid defense. Cam Reddish knocked down a 3-pointer to stop some purple and gold bleeding.

The Lakers committed some egregious turnovers while constantly collapsing on defense. As a whole, AD was having a rough game. His shots were not falling and he was looking off. Los Angeles looked extremely lackadaisical and consistently careless with the ball.

Michael Porter Jr. could not miss from behind the arc, going three for three from deep. The game was quickly getting out of hand, and L.A. did not show any care, with some of the worst defensive breakdowns they’ve had all season.

At the end of the third, the Lakers were down 16.

The Final frame started with more Denver firepower and the Lakers playing miserable basketball. The Nuggets were running away with the game and L.A. had no answer to what Denver was doing as they continued to pile on points.

From the end of the second to the start of the fourth, the Nuggets went on a 50-17 run.

The Lakers gained a small ounce of life with LeBron leading it. A dunk by Rui, assisted by LeBron, gave the crowd some energy. The Lakers cut the deficit down to 16 after a 3-pointer by Rui, forcing Denver to call timeout.

A vengeful 3-pointer by Westbrook put the game away as JJ Redick conceded and emptied his bench.

Key Takeaways:

At this point, what more can we say? It’s the same script against the Nuggets. The Lakers play a good enough first half to lead into halftime, then fail in the second half and lose.

The terrible turnovers and lack of defense were a huge disaster. They can’t win if they don’t play clean basketball.

The Lakers’ next game will be Tuesday against the Phoenix Suns at 7:00 PM PT.

You can follow Karin on Twitter at @KarinAbcarians.