The Denver Nuggets are coming off two big wins against playoff bound teams in the Western Conference. First, they blew the doors off the Houston Rockets at home on Wednesday night, before traveling to San Antonio to comeback in the fourth quarter and win on Thursday night against the Spurs. Now, the Nuggets have their third game in four nights and will try to sweep the trifecta of pivotal playoff previews by getting a win (and the tiebreaker) against the Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers currently sit a half game ahead of Denver in the standings and are desperate to make good on what appears to be LeBron James’ last season in L.A. He and Luka Doncic lead a well-rounded Lakers squad.
The Basics
Who: Denver Nuggets (41-26) at Los Angeles Lakers (41-25)
When: 6:30 PM MDT
Where: Making Money Laundering Easier for Everyone Arena. Los Angeles, CA.
How to watch/listen: ABC, Altitude Radio 92.5FM
Rival blog: Silver Screen and Roll
The Matchup
| Position | Nuggets | Lakers | Advantage |
| PG | Jamal Murray | Luka Doncic | Lakers |
| SG | Christian Braun | Marcus Smart | Even |
| SF | Cameron Johnson | Austin Reaves | Lakers |
| PF | Aaron Gordon | LeBron James | Even |
| C | Nikola Jokic | DeAndre Ayton | Nuggets |
| Bench | Bruce Brown, Tim Hardaway Jr., Jonas Valanciunas, Spencer Jones, Julian Strawther | Luke Kennard, Jaxson Hayes, Jake LaRavia, Rui Hachimura, Jarred Vanderbilt | Even |
Injury report: Jamal Murray – probable (ankle), Aaron Gordon – probable (hamstring), Peyton Watson – out (hamstring), K.J. Simpson – out (G-League), DaRon Holmes II – out (G-League), Curtis Jones – out (G-League); Jaxon Hayes – probable (back), Maxi Kleber – out (back).
The Three Things
The thing to watch for: Aaron Gordon & Nikola Jokic
The Nuggets have yet to play the Lakers with their full starting frontcourt. In the first two contests the smaller, or perhaps just less skilled defensively, Nuggets allowed the Lakers to give big minutes to Jaxon Hayes and that yielded positive results in both games. With both Gordon and Jokic in the lineup tonight the Nuggets should be able to better contain Hayes and the lob threat he poses. I don’t think this will force the Lakers to play DeAndre Ayton more, who they’ve used sparingly against Denver, but I am hoping that Gordon’s athleticism and ability to recover when defending in the pick and roll will limit all the alley-oops Luka wants to throw Jaxon’s way.
The thign to remember: the tiebreaker is in play
This is the third and final contest between the Lakers and Nuggets this season. L.A. got the first one, the Nuggets responded with a victory in the second. That sets up this all important third game as head to head record is the first tie breaker in playoff seeding scenarios. There is a cluster of four teams in the Western Conference standings from seeds three to six and Denver and Los Angeles make up two of those four teams. The probability of this tiebreaker coming into play is quite high and could be the determining factor between facking the Oklahoma City Thunder in the second round instead of the Western Conference finals or even worse, losing homecourt advantage in the first round.
The thing to bet: Nikola Jokic over 13.5 rebounds (+102)
Getting even money on Jokic’s rebound line which admittedly looks high at 13.5. However, this is a crucial game for Denver and if it stays close in the second half I expect Jokic to push up near and potentially past 40 minutes in the game. Ayton won’t keep him off the boards, neither will Hayes and there’s no one else on the Lakers getting minutes over 6’9″ unless Drew Timme gets some spot minutes. 14 rebounds feels very gettable for Nikola tonight.
