Denver Nuggets/Lakers pre-season game recap

Losing a game is never a good thing in the NBA or any sport for that matter, but even losing sometimes has its positives. As for the Lakers, a night after a very impressive pre-season opening win, the team looked a little bit different than the night before and played different as well. Insert Steve Nash and Pau Gasol into the rotation and fans can pencil in another win, right? Wrong. Yes,  the Lakers may have lost the game but there were a lot of positives from this game that the Lakers organization should take away.

First, they were playing defense again. Especially when the game slowed down, the Lakers were defending, and doing it well. The same could not be said for their offense. The team shot a mere 32% from the field. The Lakers struggled to find ways to put the ball in the basket for the entire game. Despite the offensive struggles, the Lakers managed to only lose by nine points. In the two games this pre-season the Lakers have allowed 97 and 95 points — something to be proud of for a team that was horrendous on the defensive side of the ball last season.

When the Lakers did score, they were lead by Pau Gasol and the so-far pre-season Laker MVP Xavier Henry. It seemed as if every shot Henry was taking went in for the young kid. He finished the night with 15 points on four of seven shooting. Another young player who stood out was forward Marcus Landry. Despite air-balling his first two shots, Landry ended the game with 13 points. In his debut, Steve Nash posted a zero in the points column but contributed five rebounds and six assists.

The Lakers as a team struggled most of the night and didn’t give the Staples Center fans much to cheer about, but two plays stood out from this night.

The first was on a behind the back left handed pass from Steve Nash to Steve Blake in the corner for a wide open three-pointer which he graciously drained. Then there was Darius Johnson-Odom throwing down a huge dunk on top of taller defenders late in the fourth quarter. At one point for about three to four minutes late in the fourth quarter, the Lakers lineup of Darius Johnson-Odom, Marcus Landry, Elias Harris, Xavier Henry and Eric Boateng were outplaying the Nuggets whom had Ty Lawson and Javale McGee on the court.

Sometimes, preseason trends don’t carry over into the regular season. Let’s hope this defensively-solid attitude does and that the offense comes around.