The Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday suffered a 131-136 defeat against the Denver Nuggets in the NBA when centre Nikola Jokic generated a disputed ending play.
Jokic committed a basket and foul at the end of the game which triggered an eight-point surge for his team leading to their defeat.
During the final minute Jokic faced two major controversies according to the reports. The Serbian player made an illegal screen during Jamal Murray’s game-changing three-pointer according to fans witnessing the game.
“I mean I think pretty much the whole season we were like that. We don’t know what team is going to go out there.” Jokic said.
“Pretty much inconsistent; some nights are good, some nights are bad, but it’s a good thing we win most of the games. I think we didn’t underestimate them, it just happens like that.” Jokic added.
The Lakers head coach JJ Redick undermined his team by putting backup centre Christian Koloko on Jokic which enabled the two-time MVP to capitalise on the size mismatch.
Following the game Redick took all responsibility as the person in charge of real-time adjustments.
“I think the play that Jokic got the and-one, I’ll take some ownership of that,” Redick said.
“That was a short timeout and I ran on the floor to check on [Dalton Knecht] and then I ran back and didn’t have time to really get us the right substitutions and matchups that I would’ve wanted.
“That’s not a knock on [Koloko], but I just kind of put him in a tough spot knowing that Jokic was going to go quick.” he added.
The Lakers currently sit in fifth position of the Western Conference standings after their fourth consecutive road defeat.
The Lakers suffered a defeat at the hands of the Nuggets while enduring four successive NBA losses and dropped to fifth place in the West standings.
The team will welcome their return to Staples Centre on Sunday to play against the Phoenix Suns while preparing for upcoming challenges against the Nuggets and Milwaukee Bucks during consecutive nights throughout the next week.
