Denver Nuggets Too Good for Los Angeles Lakers

The Lakers are not playing as well as they could be this season. They still haven't been able to figure out how to play like a championship team on a nightly basis. Losing to both the Cavaliers and the Nuggets twice has really broken the Lakers' hearts. They don't look like the stand out team they did last year.

Against the Nuggets they needed to play more of a free-flowing game but instead were very stagnant on offense. They also needed to show more aggression on both ends of the court.

Pau and Bynum, the supposed All-Stars on this team, need to play with intensity and consistency throughout the game. It feels like Bynum just chooses what teams he wants to play well against when he looks at the schedule.

Kobe came into the game with a sprained ankle and was questionable to play. To start, he looked unaffected as he scored 20 points in the first quarter. Yet, because he didn't play that much and because they were passing to the post, Kobe scored only 13 points the rest of the way. 

The Lakers blew several leads because they wouldn't keep up the intensity. Billups was hard to defend but it was also a matter of the Nuggets wanting it more than the Lakers.

Denver just simply attacked on offense, comfortably isolating J.R. Smith and Billups. When Billups couldn't stop making threes, the Lakers were flat. 

The Lakers can't simply expect to win. Instead of getting ten point leads and coasting, they need to pound the opposition into the ground.