Los Angeles Lakers: D’Angelo Russell Reaches New Playoff Career-High in Game 2 Loss Vs. Denver Nuggets

Despite the loss, there are a couple of positives for the Los Angeles Lakers to take away from this game, such as the fact that they even led by 20 points against the Denver Nuggets, and the fact that D’Angelo Russell established his new playoff career-high in three-pointers.

The former Ohio State Buckeye tallied 23 points, six assists, three rebounds, and seven three-pointers in 39 minutes of action, which is a much better outing than he had in Game 1, where he only had 13 points, three rebounds, three assists, and only one made three-pointer.

Los Angeles Lakers rue missed opportunities

After the game, the Los Angeles Lakers were upset about the defeat and blamed the poor officiating.

One of the many calls that they complained about was when D’Angelo Russell was hit in the face by Michael Porter Jr. during a drive late in the third period. The Denver Nuggets challenged the foul call on Michael Porter Jr. and won.

“I don’t understand what’s going on in the replay center, to be honest. … (D’Angelo Russell) clearly gets hit in the face on the drive. What the f— do we have a replay center for? It doesn’t make sense to me. It makes no sense to me. It bothers me,” LeBron James said about the call, courtesy of Ben Golliver on X (formerly known as Twitter).

As a whole, the Los Angeles Lakers only had 13 free throws , the first time it’s happened since their blowout win over the Toronto Raptors in April.

With the series shifting to LA, the Los Angeles Lakers have to be much sharper, especially down the stretch,  and they will hope to bounce back in Games 3 and 4 to avoid another sweep by the defending champions.