The Lakers (25-16) will their eight-game road in Denver where they will take on the Nuggets (29-14) on Tuesday. This will be Los Angeles\u2019 longest road trip of the season, which is also known as the famous annual \u201cGrammy trip.\u201d<\/p>\n
Start time and TV schedule<\/p>\n
Who: Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> vs. Denver Nuggets<\/p>\n Watch: NBC, Spectrum Sportsnet<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t that long ago when the Nuggets had the Lakers\u2019 number. The infamous playoff sweep in 2003 as well as the nine-game winning streak they had on the purple and gold still hits a nerve simply because LA had no answer for the Nuggets\u2019 dominance.<\/p>\n Then Luka Don\u010di\u0107 crashed the party in February 2025 and changed the narrative. In fact, Don\u010di\u0107\u2019s first iconic game as a Laker was against the Nuggets<\/a> on the road when he led them to victory after putting up 31 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists and a steal. Since then, L.A. has triumphed in two of its past three matchups against Denver.<\/p>\n But even if the Lakers are in a completely new era, the Nuggets have still remained consistently competitive. That\u2019s all thanks to the brilliance of Nikola Jokic and their core, who have picked up the slack for each other and carried their team to third place in the Western Conference standings despite all the injuries they\u2019ve dealt with all season.<\/p>\n Los Angeles will stumble upon a Denver team sans Jokic, who is still recovering from a knee injury. Still, they should expect a competitive Nuggets team that has won seven out of its last 11 games without Joker. Here\u2019s what to take note of ahead of Tuesday\u2019s battle between both teams:<\/p>\n Expect a lot of Jamal Murray<\/p>\n Yup, that\u2019s right. Jamal Murray has been carrying this team since Jokic\u2019s injury and he\u2019s playing like an All-Star while doing so. Murray\u2019s numbers this season are some of the best he\u2019s had in his career as he\u2019s putting up 26.2 points a game on 45.1% shooting from the 3-point line and 48.8% from the field. He\u2019s making the most out of the extra possessions he\u2019s been getting and that\u2019s something that can\u2019t happen against the Lakers.<\/p>\n How Los Angeles plans to contain Murray will be key in this one. It\u2019ll be interesting to see what JJ Redick\u2019s game plan is going to be. The Nuggets currently have the league\u2019s best offense and score the second-most points<\/a> in the paint. They don\u2019t shoot many 3-pointers a game but lead the league in 3-point percentage (39.8%). Look for Murray to get his own shot as well as get his teammates involved. The infamous Laker killer can\u2019t be the best player on the floor or Tuesday.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a DeAndre Ayton type of game<\/p>\n With Jokic and even his backup, Jonas Valanciunas out for the next few weeks, the Nuggets\u2019 interior presence has been subpar. There\u2019s a clear void that L.A needs to expose and there\u2019s no better player to do that than Ayton, who is coming off a terrific performance in the win against the Toronto Raptors. DA tallied 25 points and 13 rebounds on 10-10 shooting from the field. Two of the biggest reasons for his success were that his teammates made an effort to get him going and it helped that the Raptors lacked rim protection. The same scenario needs to happen again if L.A. wants to beat Denver on Tuesday.<\/p>\n Don\u010di\u0107 and LeBron James need to be the best players<\/p>\n What the Lakers and Nuggets have in common this season is that they both have a bottom-tier defense and aren\u2019t good at rebounding the ball. Although they both have enough superstar power to be elite on offense especially when healthy. On Tuesday, the Lakers\u2019 superstars need to simply be better than Murray and and Aaron Gordon, who have both played a significant role in beating the Lakers prior to Don\u010di\u0107\u2018s arrival.<\/p>\n Hopefully, Don\u010di\u0107 has one of his iconic games again because that would be chef\u2019s kiss for the viewing experience. The same goes with James, who experienced all that torment from this team over the years. Of course, the role players need to stand out as well and that\u2019s where Ayton, Marcus Smart, Jake LaRavia, Rui Hachimura and co. come in the picture. The best way to beat this Nuggets team is to control the pace and win the offensive possession battle.<\/p>\n The Lakers could use a strong victory in Denver to get their road trip off to a terrific start. Let\u2019s see if they can win their first matchup against the Nuggets this season on Tuesday.<\/p>\n Nothing unusual for the Lakers\u2019 injury report since as expected, Austin Reaves (left calf strain) and Adou Thiero (right MCL sprain) are listed as out.As for the Nuggets, Nikola Jokic (knee), Jonas Valanciunas (calf strain), Cameron Johnson (knee contusion), Christian Braun (ankle) and Tamar Bates (foot) are out.Meanwhile, Aaron Gordon (right hamstring strain) and Jamal Murray (left knee) are probable.<\/p>\n You can follow Nicole on Twitter at @nicoleganglani<\/a>.<\/p>\n