Nuggets Favored to Dominate Lakers in High-Altitude Game

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00:00Right now the two-spot in the Western Conference standings, but identical record to that of the

00:04Denver Nuggets, who should win at home tonight as well. 14-point home favorite at altitude

00:10against Luka Doncic and the L.A. Lakers. Luka scored 45 points last night, made seven threes,

00:16had 11 boards, and the Lakers still lost by 20 on the road in Milwaukee. Donnie, I'm not sure I see

00:22this game being all that close and competitive. What would you do with a 14-point spread?

00:28I probably would lay the 14 points on this point, because I was talking about yesterday,

00:31like, hey, maybe the Lakers would be competitive. And as we said, you're getting almost 50 points

00:35out of Luka Doncic, and you got blasted by 20 points. Now you're going to play a back-to-back

00:39road game on a waiting team in elevation. So if I am the Lakers, sometimes you got to be smart.

00:44Hey, Luka, you're going to sit this one out. There's a low chance we win it with you in it,

00:48and the last thing we want you to do is play on a back-to-back and somehow get even more tired at

00:51this point in a losing effort. I do think this is a big chance for the Nuggets to say, all right,

00:56this should be a free victory. We'll take it. And I would expect, if you don't lay the 14 points,

01:01surprising to me if the Lakers would be within, let's just say, double digits at the break.

01:05I don't anticipate this as, oh, the Lakers were tied at the half and just fell off in the second

01:09half. I don't know if Luka's going to play, even though he's anticipated in that starting lineup

01:12tonight. But if there's one night where the Nuggets should beat the Lakers and beat them

01:16badly, tonight's the perfect setup for that shot.