Nikola Jokic, offensive problems overshadow Lakers’ injury returns for Game 3 vs. Nuggets, Anthony Davis may get frontcourt help in Game 3, but that…..

Anthony Davis may get frontcourt help in Game 3, but that won’t solve the Lakers’ issues against Nikola Jokic and the Nuggets.

“Nikola Jokic is playing on the offensive end at a higher level than any player that I’ve ever watched play basketball…This is a special group, the Lakers are not close to beating Denver.”

Do you agree with Jason Timpf 🤔

(via @TheVolumeSports)pic.twitter.com/pvqAYG6OIn

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) April 23, 2024

“We’ve shown that we’re more than capable,” Anthony Davis said after the Lakers’ gut-wrenching last-second 101-99 Game 2 loss at Ball Arena on Monday night. “We have stretches where we don’t know what we’re doing on both ends of the floor. And those are the ones that cost us. So we have two days to get it right and come ready to win Game 3 on Thursday.”

Not exactly what you want to hear from your star player in Game 86 — facing a 2-0 deficit to the defending champions, to whom you’ve lost 10 straight times (six in the NBA Playoffs).

"[Nikola Jokic] knows how to kill you in a variety of different ways… Taller than everybody. Wingspan, skillset. It’s like sh*t. I don’t know what to do.”

Darvin Ham on defending the Joker 😅

(via @DMacSportsCO)pic.twitter.com/eZsjm8Wu6e

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) April 23, 2024

Once again, in the biggest moments, Jokic is comfortably cooking a Very Game AD, who not unreasonably called himself the best defensive player on the planet. The Lakers still have no answer for Joker’s two-man game with Jamal Murray.

The Nuggets made their last seven field goal attempts as they ripped out the Lakers’ souls possession-by-possession. Eight of their last nine buckets came from Murray or Jokic.

Jokic has torched Hachimura. Jaxson Hayes has played 10 total minutes. Darvin Ham hasn’t really tried with LeBron, because what’s the point?

Lakers start the 3rd quarter 6/9 capped by an Davis Post ISO bucket over Gordon

Lakers go 1/10 the rest of the quarter

They ran PNR 5 times and ISO'd 4 times by my count, 1 miss was the AD putback pic.twitter.com/Xckti4vrz1

— Vinay K. (@vkillem) April 23, 2024

For Game 3, at least, the Lakers are expecting to get back two rotation pieces: center Christian Wood (knee surgery) and forward Jarred Vanderbilt (foot sprain).

Wood, as a hefty-ish rim protector, can theoretically bang with Jokic on one end, and stretch him to the 3-point line. On the other hand, he’s been out since Feb. 14, and was only marginally effective in 51 appearances.

Vanderbilt, out since Feb. 1, would be an asset at full strength as a crunchtime defensive option on Murray, though he has problems switching onto Jokic.

Expecting either player to be fit enough to contribute enough to close the gap feels like wishful thinking. (On top of everything else, the Lakers have gotten nothing from their bench.)

Sometimes, the best defense is a good offense. The Lakers, among a laundry list of items — including be perfect — have to be more structured. When they commit to running plays — as they did in the first halves of Games 1 and 2, and throughout their explosive second half of the season — they’re borderline unbeatable.

For whatever reason, though — basic miscommunication, professionals doing their own thing, a lack of cultural infrastructure — the Lakers tend to bail on play-calling at the worst time against the NBA’s most cohesive team.

On Monday, a basic adjustment by Nuggets head coach Michael Malone sent the Lakers into a tizzy. Davis had been torching Jokic, hitting 14 of his first 15 shots, many coming in pick-and-roll scenarios. With Los Angeles up 68-48 two minutes into the second half, Denver switched the two-time MVP onto Rui Hachimura (who might as well have been asleep for the entire game).

From then on, the Lakers effectively ceased running action. They were outscored 53-31 the rest of the way. They shot 4-of-18 in the final 20 minutes, excluding a few LeBron hero-ball moments.

“It’s very much deliberate,” Ham said in March about the Lakers’ offensive approach. “Just as coach [Chris] Jent does a great job with our defense, coach [Phil] Handy does a great job with our offense. Making sure we’re organized and along with myself and D’Angelo Russell, Bron, everybody … Just making sure we get a play call in and things may break down.”

Whoever the responsibility lies, in the most consequential stretch of the season, as the Nuggets inevitably stormed back, the Lakers just did … nothing. (Between the Jokic pregame comment, the in-game issues, keeping a challenge in his pocket then ref-blaming, and AD’s remarks, it was not Ham’s finest night as Lakers head coach.)

Anthony Davis took one shot in the fourth quarter. The Lakers had been 20-0 this season once building a 20-point lead.

The Lakers played 18 minutes of perfect basketball in Game 1, then 26 minutes of perfect-er basketball in Game 2. It was nowhere near enough.

“The only game that matters now is Game 3 and how we can get better,” said LeBron. “How we can figure this team out.”