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125

Los Angeles Lakers vs. Denver Nuggets

March 14, 2026 · 2025-26 season

The Lakers beat the Nuggets 127-125 on 2026-03-14 at home. The Lakers started LeBron James, Marcus Smart, Deandre Ayton, Luka Dončić, and Austin Reaves. The Nuggets started Aaron Gordon, Nikola Jokić, Jamal Murray, Cameron Johnson, and Christian Braun. Nikola Jokić (Nuggets) scored 18 points (7/18) in his matchups, with Jaxson Hayes as his primary defender. Luka Dončić (Lakers) scored 34 points (12/19) in his matchups, with Christian Braun as his primary defender.

Box score

In orange, the game high in points, rebounds and assists.

LAL

Los Angeles Lakers 127

Player	MIN	PTS	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TOV	PF	FG	3PT	FT	+/-
Austin Reaves GS	45:31	32	7	6	1	1	3	3	12-21	3-8	5-6	+7
Luka Dončić GS	43:01	30	11	13	1	3	6	3	10-26	4-14	6-9	-4
LeBron James GS	40:13	17	6	5	2	0	5	2	7-13	1-3	2-3	+6
Marcus Smart GS	35:18	21	3	2	5	1	0	2	8-15	5-12	0-0	+16
Deandre Ayton GS	27:04	9	9	2	0	1	2	3	4-6	0-0	1-4	+1
Rui Hachimura	25:24	6	4	0	0	0	0	2	3-6	0-3	0-0	-8
Jaxson Hayes	20:50	5	4	0	1	0	0	4	1-2	0-0	3-4	-2
Luke Kennard	16:00	3	1	2	0	0	0	0	1-2	1-2	0-0	-9
Jake LaRavia	11:39	4	1	1	0	0	0	1	2-2	0-0	0-0	+3
Totals		127	46	31	10	6	16	20	48-93	14-42	17-26

Did not play: Kobe Bufkin (DNP - Coach's Decision), Bronny James (DNP - Coach's Decision), Dalton Knecht (DNP - Coach's Decision), Adou Thiero (DNP - Coach's Decision), Drew Timme (DNP - Coach's Decision), Jarred Vanderbilt (DNP - Coach's Decision)

DEN

Denver Nuggets 125

Player	MIN	PTS	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TOV	PF	FG	3PT	FT	+/-
Cameron Johnson GS	43:01	18	4	3	1	1	2	5	6-13	4-10	2-2	+15
Nikola Jokić GS	43:00	24	16	14	5	1	4	2	10-19	2-6	2-2	+6
Jamal Murray GS	36:03	5	6	6	2	0	2	6	1-14	1-7	2-3	-9
Aaron Gordon GS	34:49	27	5	2	0	2	3	1	9-16	5-10	4-7	-3
Christian Braun GS	33:12	12	1	3	1	0	1	3	5-9	0-2	2-2	-6
Tim Hardaway Jr.	28:33	20	1	3	2	0	1	1	6-13	4-10	4-4	+2
Spencer Jones	23:26	5	3	0	1	0	0	4	2-4	1-1	0-0	-2
Bruce Brown	19:41	12	4	2	1	1	0	0	4-6	2-3	2-2	-5
Jonas Valančiūnas	3:15	2	1	0	0	0	2	0	1-1	0-0	0-0	-8
Totals		125	41	33	13	5	15	22	44-95	19-49	18-22

Did not play: Tyus Jones (DNP - Coach's Decision), Zeke Nnaji (DNP - Coach's Decision), Jalen Pickett (DNP - Coach's Decision), David Roddy (DNP - Coach's Decision), Julian Strawther (DNP - Coach's Decision)

Lineups

LAL

Los Angeles Lakers

Starting lineup

The 5 most-used lineups:

LeBron James · Marcus Smart · Deandre Ayton · Luka Dončić · Austin Reaves Starter 16.3 min
LeBron James · Deandre Ayton · Rui Hachimura · Austin Reaves · Jake LaRavia 5.6 min
Luke Kennard · Luka Dončić · Rui Hachimura · Jaxson Hayes · Austin Reaves 5.5 min
LeBron James · Marcus Smart · Luka Dončić · Rui Hachimura · Austin Reaves 5.1 min
LeBron James · Marcus Smart · Luke Kennard · Luka Dončić · Jaxson Hayes 3.8 min

DEN

Denver Nuggets

Starting lineup

The 5 most-used lineups:

Aaron Gordon · Nikola Jokić · Jamal Murray · Cameron Johnson · Christian Braun Starter 18.0 min
Tim Hardaway Jr. · Aaron Gordon · Nikola Jokić · Cameron Johnson · Christian Braun 8.8 min
Tim Hardaway Jr. · Nikola Jokić · Bruce Brown · Cameron Johnson · Spencer Jones 4.8 min
Jonas Valanciunas · Tim Hardaway Jr. · Jamal Murray · Bruce Brown · Spencer Jones 3.3 min
Nikola Jokić · Jamal Murray · Bruce Brown · Cameron Johnson · Spencer Jones 3.3 min

Who guarded whom

Based on stats.nba.com matchup data. Points and shooting are always the offensive player's.

Lakers defense

Nikola Jokić 18 pts (7/18) in 83 possessions

Guarded by: Jaxson Hayes (25 %, 3 pts) · Deandre Ayton (23 %, 2 pts) · Marcus Smart (20 %, 7 pts)
Jamal Murray 29 pts (10/12) in 64 possessions

Guarded by: Austin Reaves (25 %, 5 pts) · LeBron James (15 %, 7 pts) · Rui Hachimura (15 %, 0 pts)

Defender	Guarded most
Luka Dončić	Christian Braun: 40 poss., 11 pts (4/6) · Nikola Jokić: 13 poss., 0 pts (0/4)
Austin Reaves	Cameron Johnson: 18 poss., 6 pts (2/5) · Jamal Murray: 16 poss., 5 pts (2/2)
LeBron James	Aaron Gordon: 19 poss., 0 pts (0/0) · Cameron Johnson: 19 poss., 0 pts (0/1)
Marcus Smart	Nikola Jokić: 16 poss., 7 pts (3/6) · Cameron Johnson: 10 poss., 0 pts (0/1)
Deandre Ayton	Nikola Jokić: 19 poss., 2 pts (1/2) · Aaron Gordon: 13 poss., 0 pts (0/0)
Rui Hachimura	Cameron Johnson: 11 poss., 2 pts (1/2) · Jamal Murray: 10 poss., 0 pts (0/0)
Jaxson Hayes	Nikola Jokić: 20 poss., 3 pts (0/0) · Spencer Jones: 6 poss., 0 pts (0/0)
Luke Kennard	Tim Hardaway Jr.: 12 poss., 0 pts (0/0) · Cameron Johnson: 6 poss., 3 pts (1/1)
Jake LaRavia	Jamal Murray: 5 poss., 0 pts (0/0) · Bruce Brown: 5 poss., 0 pts (0/0)

Nuggets defense

Luka Dončić 34 pts (12/19) in 93 possessions

Guarded by: Christian Braun (36 %, 2 pts) · Nikola Jokić (15 %, 3 pts) · Spencer Jones (13 %, 5 pts)
LeBron James 9 pts (3/7) in 83 possessions

Guarded by: Aaron Gordon (31 %, 0 pts) · Cameron Johnson (14 %, 0 pts) · Spencer Jones (14 %, 0 pts)

Defender	Guarded most
Nikola Jokić	Deandre Ayton: 23 poss., 5 pts (2/5) · Jaxson Hayes: 21 poss., 11 pts (4/5)
Cameron Johnson	Austin Reaves: 27 poss., 3 pts (1/1) · Marcus Smart: 12 poss., 3 pts (1/4)
Jamal Murray	Marcus Smart: 20 poss., 0 pts (0/1) · Austin Reaves: 17 poss., 1 pts (0/3)
Aaron Gordon	LeBron James: 26 poss., 0 pts (0/1) · Austin Reaves: 11 poss., 2 pts (0/1)
Christian Braun	Luka Dončić: 33 poss., 2 pts (1/3) · Marcus Smart: 8 poss., 2 pts (0/0)
Tim Hardaway Jr.	Austin Reaves: 12 poss., 5 pts (2/3) · Marcus Smart: 11 poss., 2 pts (1/1)
Spencer Jones	Luka Dončić: 12 poss., 5 pts (2/2) · LeBron James: 11 poss., 0 pts (0/0)
Bruce Brown	LeBron James: 7 poss., 0 pts (0/0) · Deandre Ayton: 6 poss., 4 pts (1/1)
Jonas Valanciunas	Jaxson Hayes: 3 poss., 0 pts (0/0) · LeBron James: 1 poss., 2 pts (1/1)