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Lakers guard Austin Reaves, left, scrambles for a loose ball against Denver Nuggets forward Michael Porter Jr. during the first half on Wednesday night, March 19, 2025, at Crypto.com Arena. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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LOS ANGELES — It wasn’t even a week ago that the Lakers were in a similar position to the one the Denver Nuggets were in on Wednesday night – down multiple star players in a pivotal matchup for Western Conference playoff seeding.

The Nuggets were nearly stunned by the Lakers last Friday in Denver, allowing the visitors to stay in the game until the final minute before a strong finish helped them survive.

The Lakers didn’t make the same mistake on Wednesday when they hosted the Nuggets, who were without Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray, pulling off a wire-to-wire 120-108 victory behind a strong start from Luka Doncic (31 points, nine rebounds and seven assists).

It was the 200th time Doncic scored at least 30 points in a regular-season game, the eighth in 16 games since he joined the Lakers. He’s scored at least 30 in six of his past eight games.

Doncic led the Lakers (43-25) early, scoring 21 of his points in the first quarter – opening the period by assisting Jaxson Hayes (six points, seven rebounds) on a dunk before scoring multiple baskets inside the arc.

“It’s easy for me to start there, just driving the ball,” Doncic said. “When I drive the ball, it gets better for everybody on the court.”

From there, Doncic did more damage from behind the arc, making three of his four 3-pointers during an 18-2 run midway through the first quarter on a night when the Lakers were in a collective rhythm from the perimeter.

“I don’t know what it was exactly in Dallas, but I know he had a number of big first quarters for them,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said of Doncic, who entered Wednesday third in the league in first-quarter scoring since making his Lakers debut on Feb. 10.

Redick added: “So this is kind of what he does and has done throughout his career.”

The Lakers made 16 of their 38 3-point attempts (42.1%), including four from Gabe Vincent (12 points), three from Dorian Finney-Smith (14 points, four rebounds, four assists) and three from Dalton Knecht (12 points).

“Sometimes teams send three guys at him. It’s just amazing that he finds the open man time and time again,” Vincent said of Doncic. “He makes the game so easy for us, you know, whether he’s getting to the free-throw line himself or walking to the rim or making a tough shot when we need one or finding the open guy over and over again. … He makes the right read every time and that’s something that’s invaluable.”

After Doncic’s hot start, the Nuggets went from switching defensively on screens involving the 26-year-old Slovenian star to trapping and regularly sending help toward him, opening scoring opportunities for his teammates.

“It’s just an advantage so the game gets back to the simplicity of it,” Vincent said. “Someone’s gonna be open. You attack until you can’t attack anymore and find the open man. We’ve done a good job of doing that. We’ve taken care of the ball in those situations as well, which is huge for us.”

Austin Reaves (22 points, eight assists, five rebounds) also made a pair of shots from deep, and Jarred Vanderbilt (10 points) scored in double figures.

The Lakers led 46-29 going into the second quarter after Doncic’s hot start.

“When you’ve got one player that scores 21 of ’em, you’re gonna score a lot of points in the quarter,” Reaves said. “He got it going early. He was frying. When you see that, you just want to keep giving him the ball and let him roll with it.”

That margin grew to 28 points (69-41) midway through the quarter, but the Nuggets cut their deficit to 73-59 behind their offensive rebounding and transition offense.

The Nuggets finished with 12 offensive rebounds and 14 second-chance points, in addition to 26 fast-break points, with half of those (13) coming in the second quarter and a majority of them (21) before halftime.

“Defensively, the only real lapse was that second quarter,” Redick said. “We felt like the game was going to come down to our ability to get back, defend in transition, take care of the basketball and keep them off the glass. And that wasn’t great in the first half. Cleaned all that stuff up in the second half, which was awesome.”

The Lakers indeed regained control in the third, taking a 105-77 lead into the fourth that grew to 30 near the start of the quarter as they moved into third place by percentage points in the tightly packed Western Conference standings.

Neither team played most of its main rotation players in the fourth, allowing Doncic to get extra rest amid a stretch of five home games in seven days.

The short-handed Nuggets (44-26) were led by Aaron Gordon (26 points, 11 rebounds).

Wednesday was the Lakers’ ninth consecutive home win and 16th in their past 17 games at Crypto.com Arena. They have won three straight since returning from an 0-4 road trip.

The Lakers will host the Milwaukee Bucks on Thursday to close out the back-to-back set and cap a stretch of six games in eight days.


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