The Lakers (25-16) will their eight-game road in Denver where they will take on the Nuggets (29-14) on Tuesday. This will be Los Angeles’ longest road trip of the season, which is also known as the famous annual “Grammy trip.”
Start time and TV schedule
Who: Los Angeles Lakers vs. Denver Nuggets
When: 7 p.m. PT, Jan. 20
Where: Ball Arena
Watch: NBC, Spectrum Sportsnet
It wasn’t that long ago when the Nuggets had the Lakers’ number. The infamous playoff sweep in 2003 as well as the nine-game winning streak they had on the purple and gold still hits a nerve simply because LA had no answer for the Nuggets’ dominance.
Then Luka Dončić crashed the party in February 2025 and changed the narrative. In fact, Dončić’s first iconic game as a Laker was against the Nuggets on the road when he led them to victory after putting up 31 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists and a steal. Since then, L.A. has triumphed in two of its past three matchups against Denver.
But even if the Lakers are in a completely new era, the Nuggets have still remained consistently competitive. That’s all thanks to the brilliance of Nikola Jokic and their core, who have picked up the slack for each other and carried their team to third place in the Western Conference standings despite all the injuries they’ve dealt with all season.
Los Angeles will stumble upon a Denver team sans Jokic, who is still recovering from a knee injury. Still, they should expect a competitive Nuggets team that has won seven out of its last 11 games without Joker. Here’s what to take note of ahead of Tuesday’s battle between both teams:
Expect a lot of Jamal Murray
Yup, that’s right. Jamal Murray has been carrying this team since Jokic’s injury and he’s playing like an All-Star while doing so. Murray’s numbers this season are some of the best he’s had in his career as he’s putting up 26.2 points a game on 45.1% shooting from the 3-point line and 48.8% from the field. He’s making the most out of the extra possessions he’s been getting and that’s something that can’t happen against the Lakers.
How Los Angeles plans to contain Murray will be key in this one. It’ll be interesting to see what JJ Redick’s game plan is going to be. The Nuggets currently have the league’s best offense and score the second-most points in the paint. They don’t shoot many 3-pointers a game but lead the league in 3-point percentage (39.8%). Look for Murray to get his own shot as well as get his teammates involved. The infamous Laker killer can’t be the best player on the floor or Tuesday.
It’s a DeAndre Ayton type of game
With Jokic and even his backup, Jonas Valanciunas out for the next few weeks, the Nuggets’ interior presence has been subpar. There’s a clear void that L.A needs to expose and there’s no better player to do that than Ayton, who is coming off a terrific performance in the win against the Toronto Raptors. DA tallied 25 points and 13 rebounds on 10-10 shooting from the field. Two of the biggest reasons for his success were that his teammates made an effort to get him going and it helped that the Raptors lacked rim protection. The same scenario needs to happen again if L.A. wants to beat Denver on Tuesday.
Dončić and LeBron James need to be the best players
What the Lakers and Nuggets have in common this season is that they both have a bottom-tier defense and aren’t good at rebounding the ball. Although they both have enough superstar power to be elite on offense especially when healthy. On Tuesday, the Lakers’ superstars need to simply be better than Murray and and Aaron Gordon, who have both played a significant role in beating the Lakers prior to Dončić‘s arrival.
Hopefully, Dončić has one of his iconic games again because that would be chef’s kiss for the viewing experience. The same goes with James, who experienced all that torment from this team over the years. Of course, the role players need to stand out as well and that’s where Ayton, Marcus Smart, Jake LaRavia, Rui Hachimura and co. come in the picture. The best way to beat this Nuggets team is to control the pace and win the offensive possession battle.
The Lakers could use a strong victory in Denver to get their road trip off to a terrific start. Let’s see if they can win their first matchup against the Nuggets this season on Tuesday.
Notes and Updates
- Nothing unusual for the Lakers’ injury report since as expected, Austin Reaves (left calf strain) and Adou Thiero (right MCL sprain) are listed as out.
- As for the Nuggets, Nikola Jokic (knee), Jonas Valanciunas (calf strain), Cameron Johnson (knee contusion), Christian Braun (ankle) and Tamar Bates (foot) are out.
- Meanwhile, Aaron Gordon (right hamstring strain) and Jamal Murray (left knee) are probable.
You can follow Nicole on Twitter at @nicoleganglani.
