Denver Nuggets Conquer the LA Lakers behind Barton and Nurkic

Game Grades

Two Nuggets started stood out while one was horrifically outplayed.

Jusuf Nurkic- A-

Jusuf Nurkic battled tonight. He ended with 18 points and 14 rebounds on 5-12 shooting.

While Nurkic was a presence both on both sides of the court, it would nice to see him a little more effective. He missed several bunnies down low, but he has overall been able to show his impact throughout this entire preseason.

Oh, and he had this poster.

Will Barton- A

From running the floor to spotting up to impacting the game in every aspect, Will Barton was the overall avenger for the Nuggets tonight.

He finished the game with 20 points on 6-of-14 shooting and 2-of-4 from three. Barton got the shot at the spotting spot with Harris out 4-6 weeks with a groin issue. While the team did miss Harris, Barton flew in and provided a nice productive hand.

He was also able to make a highlight real moment.

Two up and now one down:

Emmanuel Mudiay- C-

While Emmanuel Mudiay did show glimpses of beauty throughout this game, the majority of this game was spent being burned by the Lakers Russell.

Russell hit four threes and scored 21 points while Emmanuel Mudiay was able to rack up just 4 points on 2-10 shooting in 24 minutes.

It was a pretty brutal game for Mudiay as this was a highly anticipated matchup of last years star rookies. But, it was pretty obvious who won this fight.

Mudiay will get another shot at Russell on Sunday, and hopefully the tides turn.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, the Nuggets won this game, but ultimately they were shown many areas that they can work on. While their pick-and-roll defense is still weak, the Nuggets will need to formulate several ways to slow the opponents down.

It should be noted that Gallo, Faried, Arthur, and Harris were all out tonight.

Be ready for the Nuggets to take on the Lakers again on Sunday night!