DENVER — It was, as coach Mike Malone said when the smoke cleared, “an emotional time” when the Denver Nuggets opened the 2023-24 NBA season as defending champs.
Prior to tipping off with the visiting Los Angeles Lakers, the Nuggets received their rings before a sold-out crowd of 19.520 screaming fans at the Ball Arena.
But when the hoopla of the pre-game ceremony died down, the Nuggets went to business as usual and held off the Lakers with a methodical 119-107 romp, using an early 18-point lead to hold off LeBron James and company.
Two-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic had a workmanlike 29 points, 13 rebounds and 11 assists in 36 minutes of action. Jamal Murray run the offense and scored 21 points while dishing six dimes.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope 20. Michael Porter Jr and Aaron Gordon combined for 27 and each of the Nuggets starters scored in double figures.
“We can’t think about last year too much,” Murray said on his post-game press conference, emphasizing that the win over the Lakers was just 1 of 41 home games and 82 overall.
LeBron James, entering Season 21 of his Hall-of-Fame career, led the Lakers with a do-it-all fare of 21 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists. Anthony Davis struggled with just 6-of-17 shooting from the field but still managed 17 markers.
Austin Reaves and D’Angelo Russell combined for 25 combined but the Lakers made only 45.6 percent of their shots, 41-of-90.
“We were trending in the right direction for a while there,” Lakers coach Darvin Ham said. “Each quarter we had given up less and less and then they just kind of blew the game wide open.”
BLING. BLING. BLING.
The much-talked-about Nuggets championship ring was created in collaboration with Jason of Beverly Hills.
The top lever of the jewel changes from 1967 to 2023 and it has a hidden compartment within the ring showing “Denver Nuggets 2023 Championship Banner.”
A fine piece of jewelry indeed.
