Nuggets Likely Reinforced Russell Westbrook Before Matchup Vs. Lakers

Everything went the way of the Denver Nuggets on Saturday night in their matchup with the Los Angeles Lakers. Despite a solid first half from Anthony Davis and company, the second half was all Nuggets, including a stellar performance from former Laker Russell Westbrook.

Westbrook played 24 minutes and finished with 14 points, 11 assists and seven rebounds on 6-for-10 shooting and was a plus-17 on the night. It was the type of performance the Lakers tried to pull out of Westbrook for his year and a half with the team, but never could.

Davis praised Westbrook for what he brings to the Nuggets overall. But he also believes the Nuggets probably helped give Westbrook some extra motivation to give his best performance against LA

“I mean, just for their team, he brings that energy,” Davis said. “You know how Russ plays; he plays hard and made some shots and some steals. You play how Russ plays; I’m pretty sure those guys know the history with us and probably amped him up a little more.

“But you know when he gets in the game, he’s very disruptive and brings that juice to them, especially when he plays. So I think that kind of helped them a lot tonight.”

The Lakers could have benefited greatly from having the type of Westbrook playing against them on Saturday night. He was effective from the field, got others involved, limited mistakes and brought energy to the second and first units.

Westbrook has always been the type of player who would need to adjust his game if he wanted to extend his career, and it’s possible the Nuggets have found the formula to do that. Or it’s possible they got the best of Westbrook given the motivation to play the Lakers.

Anthony Davis: Teams take advantage of rebounding issues

Unfortunately, LA’s game against the Nuggets played as each contest has played in the last 14 meetings. The purple and gold hung around, took a respectable lead, then crumbled in the second half.

In the third quarter in particular, the Lakers’ offense stagnated and stopped generating good looks. That led to settling for jump shots and sloppy turnovers, allowing Denver to come out of the break.

That was coupled with an inability to finish defensive possessions with rebounds, which has been a problem for the Lakers all season. Anthony Davis knows that opposing teams exploit these two issues when scouting LA

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