Nuggets looking to continue winning ways against struggling Lakers

The Denver Nuggets continue to pile up victories, winning seven of their last nine games and are looking to continue widening their lead for the eighth seed in the Western Conference while the Los Angeles Lakers are tail spinning and have won just one of their last nine games.

Regular season game No. 47 | Denver Nuggets (21-25) vs Los Angeles Lakers (16-34)

STAPLES Center, Los Angeles, California  | 7:00 PM MST | TV: Altitude

Life without Nikola Jokic

The loss of Nikola Jokic was obviously going to be a big shot to the Nuggets offense being that he is the focal point of the team. The first quarter against the Phoenix Suns was a rough one. The Nuggets shot just 33 percent from the field and only Danilo Gallinari was able to put together consistent looks. Outside of Gallinari, the Nuggets shot a combined 3-16 and had just four assists.

“We looked a little bit uncomfortable; not on the same page, which is to be expected,” Malone explained at practice. “We were without Emmanuel Mudiay and Nikola Jokic. Kenneth and (Jusuf Nurkic) had not started together in a really long time. What I liked was, in that third quarter, that the same group looked a lot more fluid and a lot more together. Obviously, Gallo and Jameer had a lot to do with that.”

Gallinari had put the Nuggets on his back and willed the Nuggets offense to score. It was his inspired play that opened up the rest of the floor for the likes of Jamal Murray and Jameer Nelson, who were instrumental from the second quarter on. The Nuggets finding a way to play efficient offense without Jokic is going to be something to keep an eye on as the season continues.

“We can’t have two completely different offensive philosophies with and without Nikola Jokic,” explained Malone. “We still want to play the same way. Obviously with Nikola out there with his playmaking ability; it makes it that much easier. We still want to play with pace. We still want to play with purpose.”

Nuggets dealing with injuries once again

As the Nuggets finally became fully healthy for the first time in over a year, it seems the injury bug has bitten once again. Denver has six players on the injury report and has some of the main cogs of the team playing through pain. Wilson Chandler has been dealing with pain in his neck and shoulder while Faried, Will Barton, and Mudiay have multiple different aches and pains throughout the year.

While the injury bug has hurt the Nuggets season it has also allowed players further down the bench to step up and help the Nuggets with the best example of that being Murray. Murray has taken over the reserve point guard duties and has done a solid job thus far and it drew the attention of Michael Malone.

“All year long when someone has gone down someone has stepped up and taken full advantage of that opportunity and Jamal has done that,” said Malone. “He has shown in his first true minutes at the backup one (PG) that he is more than capable of playing that position at the highest level in the NBA.”

Expect Murray to continue getting minutes at point guard as he continues to develop even when Mudiay returns from his back injury.