Lakers end Nuggets' streak of Staples success
LOS ANGELES -- D'Angelo Russell returned to score 22 points and hand out a career-high 10 assists, and the Los Angeles Lakers captured a 120-116 win over the Denver Nuggets on Tuesday night at Staples Center.
Nick Young had 23 points and Lou Williams added 21 points and seven assists for the Lakers, who snapped a seven-game skid to the Nuggets at Staples. Russell missed the previous three games with a mild MCL sprain in his right knee and a strained right calf.
Rookie center Ivica Zubac scored a career-high 17 points for Los Angeles (17-34).
Wilson Chandler collected 26 points and nine rebounds for the Nuggets, who had their three-game winning end. Gary Harris and Danilo Gallinari contributed 17 points apiece, while Jamal Murray and Kenneth Faried chipped in 14 points each for Denver (21-26). Faried had a game-high 17 rebounds.
Los Angeles forward Julius Randle was unavailable for the second game in a row due to pneumonia.
Denver played without two of its starters, forward Nikola Jokic and point guard Emmanuel Mudiay. Jokic sat out his second straight contest with a left hip flexor, while Mudiay missed his fifth game with lower back pain.
Nuggets guard Will Barton also didn't play due to left ankle soreness.
The teams traded baskets for the final five minutes. A jumper by Williams and an inside bucket by Zubac boosted the Lakers to a 114-111 lead with 1:40 remaining. Seventeen seconds later, Chandler's floater pulled Denver within 114-113.
Russell's jumper with 43.8 seconds remaining pushed the margin back to three.
Faried made one of two free throws to slice the deficit to two with 35 seconds to go, but Russell converted a pair of foul shots with 12.4 seconds left to put the Lakers up 118-114.
With 4.2 seconds left, Chandler's layup got Denver within two again, but Russell answered with two more free throws to cap the scoring.
Denver led 59-54 at the break after 17 lead changes, 14 of them occurring in the second quarter. Overall, there were 22 lead changes in the contest.
In the third, the Lakers opened with a 16-6 spurt for a 70-65 advantage after a bucket by Timofey Mozgov with 5:20 left in the quarter. Los Angeles took an 81-76 edge heading into the final quarter.
NOTES: Unlike Detroit Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy, Nuggets coach Mike Malone danced around the controversial travel ban being pushed by President Trump. Van Gundy blasted the president Monday, comparing Trump's tactics to Adolf Hitler's in Nazi Germany. "I'll be honest, I'll let the Stan Van Gundys and Gregg Popovichs, the guys who have been around the league and a lot better, well-spoken than I am speak on that," Malone said. ... Nuggets F Nikola Jokic (left hip flexor strain) participated in a light workout Tuesday morning. Jokic is listed as day-to-day. ... Lakers 19-year-old rookie C Ivica Zubac is progressing much faster than the club anticipated, allowing him to play his way into the rotation. ... Denver hosts the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday. ... Los Angeles begins a five-game journey at the Washington Wizards on Thursday.