Lakers vs. Nuggets Preview and Game Thread: Can Los Angeles finally beat Denver?

With LeBron James expected to crack 40,000 points, can the Lakers make the night extra sweet by snapping their six-game losing streak to the Nuggets?

The Lakers will look to avoid getting swept by the Denver Nuggets in their regular season series as they go head-to-head again on Saturday. The purple and gold will have the chance to snap Denver’s six-game winning streak against them on the same evening LeBron James is expected to crack 40,000 career points.

Start time and TV schedule

Who: Los Angeles Lakers vs. Denver Nuggets

When: 5:30 p.m. PT, Mar. 2

Where: Crypto.com Arena

Watch: ABC

The Lakers have finally built some momentum of their own after the All-Star break with their current two-game winning streak. Only this team can put together an incredible comeback victory against the Los Angeles Clippers on Thursday, and then follow it up with a putrid performance versus the Washington Wizards, who the Lakers barely escaped from in a narrow overtime win.

If you’ve been watching this team religiously this season, you’d know all this was very predictable. But despite their ugliness, at least those two games ended in wins, and as a result, the Lakers (33-28) are now five games above .500 for the first time since December. They still have a long hill to climb if they want to avoid the play-in tournament, but doing so is still a possible outcome. The purple and gold are just four games behind the fifth seed and three behind the sixth.

But in order for them to even have a chance to climb their way up in the competitive Western Conference standings, they have to win most — if not all — the remaining games in their tough schedule ahead. Their difficult March slate begins against the Nuggets, who the Lakers haven’t defeated since before they were swept in Western Conference Finals last year. The last time the Lakers beat the Nuggets was last Dec 2022.

The Lakers could really use this victory against Denver to finally get the monkey off their back, and to give them momentum to build on moving forward. A lot has to go right for the Lakers in order to beat the defending champions, who are currently on a five-game winning streak and look like the hottest team in the Western Conference. That said, here’s what you should look out for during Saturday’s primetime game.

LeBron James will be the only player in NBA history with 40,000 points

With exactly nine points to go to crack 40,000, there’s no doubt that James will achieve this unprecedented milestone on Saturday. This game most likely won’t be as big of an event as when the NBA’s current all-time leading scorer passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in February of 2023, but there’s no doubt that James’ 40,000 point will be celebrated. Hopefully, the Lakers can put the icing on the cake with a sweet victory — something they haven’t done often whenever LeBron achieves a record-setting milestone.

Will the Lakers do something about their flaws?

The Lakers’ starting unit with D’Angelo Russell, Austin Reaves, Rui Hachimura, James and Anthony Davis now has a record of 7-1 when they start games together. And while there’s no doubt that this is the Lakers’ best starting unit this season, the past few games have shown that it has its flaws, particularly when it comes to rebounding and defense. In the last 10 games, Los Angeles ranks 21st in the league in defense, 28th in rebounding and third in second-chance points given up a game.

Losing Jarred Vanderbilt has a lot to do with the Lakers’ drop-off in both departments of late, and it’s unfortunate that it appears they’re not going to get (arguably) their second-best defender back anytime soon. But that only means the Lakers really need to make an effort to fix their issues, especially if they want a shot to beat the defending champions — who do their damage best by exposing their opponents’ weaknesses.

How big is the gap between the Lakers and Nuggets?

When the Lakers last hosted the Nuggets less than a month ago, Davis scored 32 while James had 25 but that was not enough to will the team to a comeback victory. The purple and gold were missing four rotation players (Vanderbilt, Cam Reddish, D’Angelo Russell and Max Christie, who left the game with a sprained ankle) and didn’t have an answer for Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr., who both combined for 56 points.

There’s no doubt that Russell’s presence will help the Lakers big time on Saturday, as they really missed his shooting and ability to space the floor last time. But the x-factor of this game will be Rui Hachimura, who had his worst performance of the season in the Lakers’ last matchup against the Nuggets. Rui is the one who provides the physicality and length Los Angeles badly needs to match up well with the Nuggets. They really need him to have a big game on both ends of the floor in order to keep up with the defending champions.

Ultimately, the Lakers’ best chance to win in this one is if they bring their A-game and play hard from start to finish instead of having to scramble their way to a late victory like they failed to do last time. This Nuggets are one of — if not — the best-performing teams in the clutch this season, so the purple and gold should avoid getting into a situation where Denver is at its best.

There’s no sugarcoating the fact that this is going to be an extremely hard game for the Lakers to win — given how well Denver is playing of late — but hey, the Lakers have pulled off a couple of surprising victories this season. So who knows? Maybe they finally snap their losing streak against the Nuggets.

We’ll see if the purple and gold can indeed pull it off in what is expected to be an exciting game on Saturday.

Notes and Updates:

• Before we get to the injury report, another trend worth taking note of is how the Lakers’ bench has performed recently. It’s been a growing area of concern, as Taurean Prince has struggled scoring the basketball lately, in part leading to L.A. losing the bench points battle against their opponents for the last seven games. It would be nice to get more scoring production outside of Prince, Spencer Dinwiddie and Jaxson Hayes, so we’ll see if anyone steps up.
• For the Lakers’ injury report, Anthony Davis (bilateral Achilles tendinopathy) and Cam Reddish (right ankle sprain) are probable.
• LeBron James (left ankle peroneal tendinopathy) is listed as questionable while Jarred Vanderbilt (right foot soreness), Christian Wood (left knee effusion) and Gabe Vincent (left knee surgery) and Collin Castleton (right wrist fracture) are all out.
• As for the Nuggets, Jamal Murray (right ankle sprain) and Kentavius Caldwell-Pope (personal reasons) are questionable. Braxton Key (personal reasons) and Vlatko Cancar (left knee surgery) are out.

You can follow Nicole on Twitter at @nicoleganglani