moving ahead of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the most made field goals in NBA history<\/a>, but was dealing with a left elbow injury late in the game after taking a fall on a layup attempt in the fourth.<\/p>\nAdvertisement<\/p>\n
Jaxson Hayes stepped up after starting center Deandre Ayton left the game with left knee soreness, with Hayes finishing with 19 points on 8-of-10 shooting and five rebounds in 28 minutes.<\/p>\n
The Nuggets jumped out to a 15-2 lead with the Lakers lacking energy early.<\/p>\n
They outscored the Nuggets 110-106 over the final 43 \u00bd\u00a0minutes after Ayton subbed out with the knee injury.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe talked about the sense of urgency, the importance of this game pregame, we talked about our physicality, took us a little bit of time to do that,\u201d coach JJ Redick said. \u201cIt\u2019s difficult against good teams to spot them\u202613 points. Our group showed a lot of resiliency, did some really good things.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Three-time MVP Nikola Jokic led the Nuggets with 28 points, 13 assists and 12 rebounds. Jamal Murray added 28 points and seven assists.<\/p>\n
![\"LeBron](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/3fc7b66af4771b0b3b487f75885c4d8f.jpeg\"\/)
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LeBron James goes up for a layup against the Nuggets. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n
What it means<\/p>\n
The Lakers will stay at the No. 6 spot in the West, moving further behind the No. 5 Nuggets (39-24).<\/p>\n
They dropped to 37-25 on the season.<\/p>\n
Turning point<\/p>\n
When Reaves split a pair of free throws with 2:05 remaining.<\/p>\n
The Lakers would\u2019ve tied the game at 112 apiece if Reaves made both, but they trailed 112-111 after he missed the second attempt, with Jokic making a driving hook shot on the Nuggets\u2019 ensuing possession to start a 6-0 run.<\/p>\n
![\"Nikola](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ef00a2c52a0274e8274114279a8542a2.jpeg\"\/)
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Nikola Jokic drives to the basket against the Lakers. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n
MVP: Nikola Jokic<\/p>\n
Even on a night he didn\u2019t play the best, Jokic still had a triple-double and shot 10 of 15 from the field.<\/p>\n
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Stat of the game: 15<\/p>\n
That\u2019s how many technical fouls Doncic has been assessed this season after picking up another technical in the second quarter on Thursday.<\/p>\n
After going almost 1 \u00bd months across 14 games without a technical foul, Doncic picked up his 14th during Tuesday\u2019s home win over the Pelicans.<\/p>\n
![\"Luka](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/147e2bfecfb323531cd44b6aea7c3764.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Luka Doncic received another technical foul, raising his season total to 15. AP<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s aware that he\u2019s close,\u201d coach JJ Redick said ahead of Thursday\u2019s game. \u201cAnd I think he\u2019s\u2026 He\u2019s trying.\u201d<\/p>\n
If Doncic is assessed another technical for his 16th of the season, he\u2019ll have to serve a one-game suspension by league rule.<\/p>\n
Up next<\/p>\n
The Lakers will close out the back-to-back set when they return to Southern California on Friday.<\/p>\n
They\u2019ll host the Pacers at Crypto.com Arena to kick off a five-game homestand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DENVER \u2014 Even with both teams eventually down multiple key players, Thursday night at Ball Arena was the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":643130,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3724],"tags":[1013,7,1586,187,762,32,1661,185,150,368,253,114,675],"class_list":{"0":"post-643129","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-austin-reaves","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-deandre-ayton","11":"tag-denver-nuggets","12":"tag-jamal-murray","13":"tag-jaxson-hayes","14":"tag-jj-redick","15":"tag-lebron-james","16":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","17":"tag-luka-doncic","18":"tag-nikola-jokic","19":"tag-pacers","20":"tag-pelicans"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116182271142479502","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643129","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=643129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643129\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/643130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=643129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=643129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=643129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Nikola](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/fc96fbcb9d266eba378f70a60f0889a6.jpeg\"\/)
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