The Matchup<\/p>\n
PositionNuggetsLakersAdvantagePGJamal MurrayLuka DoncicLakersSGJulian StrawtherMarcus SmartEvenSFChristian BraunAustin ReavesLakersPFCameron JohnsonLeBron JamesLakersCNikola JokicDeAndre AytonNuggetsBenchBruce Brown, Tim Hardaway Jr., Jonas Valanciunas, Spencer JonesLuke Kennard, Jaxson Hayes, Jake LaRavia, Rui HachimuraEven<\/p>\n
Injury report: Cameron Johnson \u2013 questionable (ankle), Aaron Gordon \u2013 out (hamstring), Peyton Watson \u2013 out (hamstring), Spencer Jones \u2013 out (shoulder), Curtis Jones \u2013 out (G-League); Maxi Kleber \u2013 questionable (back).<\/p>\n
The Three Things<\/p>\n
The thing to watch for: Will David Adelman even attempt to inject some size?<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/USATSI_28051434-1024x683.jpg\")
Jan 20, 2026; Denver, Colorado, USA; Los Angeles Lakers guard Luka Doncic (77) passes the ball against Denver Nuggets guard Bruce Brown (11) as forward Zeke Nnaji (22) defends in the fourth quarter at Ball Arena. Mandatory Credit: Isaiah J. Downing-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
Nuggets head coach David Adelman is determined to make Nikola Jokic and four wings work as his starting lineup (at least until Aaron Gordon\u2019s imminent return). Denver\u2019s gone with that starting group format ever since Spencer Jones got hurt (or they were trying to figure out how to get him a real contract) and it\u2019s yielded mixed results. On one hand, the Lakers don\u2019t play very big either. Like Denver they are essentially playing a big small forward at the power forward spot and only have one center coming off the bench. On the other hand, Denver might benefit from trying to assert more size and, if nothing else, by giving James a more difficult defensive matchup than Cam Johnson. I\u2019m not expecting any changes to the starting lineup but the Nuggets recent signing of former CSU Ram David Roddy seems to indicate at the very least they recognize the need for more true combo forwards who can play the three or four.<\/p>\n
The thing to remember: The Lakers have a fairly complete roster<\/p>\n
When you look up and down the LA Roster there\u2019s not a lot of holes. No, I wouldn\u2019t want Jaxon Hayes to be playing actual minutes on my team and yes, Rui Hachimura peaked with the \u201cRui adjustment\u201d in the 2023 playoffs, but this Lakers roster has a lot of pieces to like. Obviously the high end is there with Luka and LeBron, they\u2019ve got a very capable secondary scorer in Austin Reaves and the rest of the rotation is filled out with guys that have clearly defined roles. Sure, it\u2019d be nice to have more defensive presence in their big men and there\u2019s not much in the way of plus defenders in general after Marcus Smart, but this Lakers roster makes more sense than several previous iterations.<\/p>\n
The thing to bet: Under 239.5<\/p>\n
Not a ton to bet on right now (pitfalls of writing the preview early) but the Over\/Under currently sits at 239.5. While the Nuggets have not been a strong defensive team this year, they\u2019ve had a couple gems lately that show the capability is there. Meanwhile, a Lakers game hasn\u2019t hit 240 points since the first game back from the all-star break.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Denver Nuggets have not exactly inspired confidence since the all-star break. They are 5-5 in their last…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":640584,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3781],"tags":[1013,7,561,301,187,3943,762,185,150,368,6,253,302,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-640583","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-denver-nuggets","8":"tag-austin-reaves","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-christian-braun","11":"tag-denver","12":"tag-denver-nuggets","13":"tag-denvernuggets","14":"tag-jamal-murray","15":"tag-lebron-james","16":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","17":"tag-luka-doncic","18":"tag-nba","19":"tag-nikola-jokic","20":"tag-nuggets","21":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116175586260984884","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=640583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/640584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=640583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=640583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=640583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}