(Basketball news) The Los Angeles bounced back off a disappointing defeat to the Boston Celtics as they beat the Denver Nuggets 126-108. For the Lakers, LeBron James scored 30 points, Russell Westbrook had 15 points, 12 assists and 11 rebounds while Thomas Bryant scored 21 points, Austin Reaves 16 points and Dennis Schroder 15 points. Davis missed the second half with a right foot injury, but the Lakers still produced some of their prettiest team basketball of the season down the stretch of their second win in six games. For the Nuggets, Nikola Jokic had 25 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists while Jamal Murray scored 23 points and Aaron Gordon had 17 points as their three-game winning streak ended.
‘The pace changed, and the game changed,” Westbrook said. ”You could see it. When we play that way, it’s hard to beat us.”
”It’s huge, especially after the heartbreak loss we had last time against Boston,” James said. ”We started to get defensive stops, and we were able to get out and execute offensively.”
”(When) we know something, then we go from there,” James said. ”Wish the best of news for sure, especially for AD.”
The Golden State Warriors lost to the Philadelphia 76ers 118-109. For the 76ers, Joel Embiid had 34 points and 13 rebounds, James Harden added 27 points and nine assists while De’Anthony Melton had 17 points and seven assists. For the Warriors, Klay Thompson played through soreness in his left knee to score 12 points as Stephen Curry sat out for Golden State two nights after injuring his left shoulder in a loss at Indiana. Draymond Green (right quadriceps contusion) and Andrew Wiggins (strained right adductor) also missed the game. Jordan Poole led the scoring with 29 points as Donte DiVincenzo scored 17 points in his return to the arena where he played in college at Villanova, and Kevon Looney had 14 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists. With this result the Golden State dropped to 2-14 on the road and their record stands at 14-16 overall.
”The main thing is that everybody has bought in,” Embiid said. ”That’s the thing. Everyone knows where they have to go and everyone knows where the ball has to go and everybody knows that the ball can not stick, that it has to be moving around.”
”It was a tough night for Klay,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. ”Just his effort was there, but the shots were not going. Just wasn’t his night, but he will bounce back.”
”I didn’t think we played with great life tonight,” 76ers coach Doc Rivers said. ”But we won the game, so I’ll take it.”
”I thought (Poole) was much better in terms of staying poised,” Kerr said. ”He did a better job tonight not getting frustrated emotionally, not getting frustrated.”
”We were just trying to be more physical,” Embiid said. ”They were on fire, hitting some of those shots. There were some lucky bounces and they were making everything. At some point, you knew that they were not going to be able to do that all night. And we knew that we had to be more aggressive, more physical and getting them into foul trouble. And we were able to close off some of those wide-open shots.’
