LOS ANGELES — LeBron James becoming the first player in league history to score at least 40,000 regular-season points came on a bittersweet night, with the Lakers dropping Saturday’s home matchup to the Denver Nuggets, 124-114, at Crypto.com Arena.
It looked like James’ milestone was going to come in a victory, with the Lakers (33-29) leading for most of Saturday.
But the Nuggets (42-19) dominated the late portion of the matchup, closing the fourth on a 16-4 run for their sixth consecutive victory, completing a 3-0 regular-season sweep of the Lakers.
The Lakers have lost their last eight matchups to the Nuggets, including the four-game sweep in last season’s Western Conference finals.
James finished with 26 points on 12-for-20 shooting to go with nine assists and four rebounds. Rui Hachimura added 23 points on 10-for-15 shooting while being the primary defender against Nikola Jokic (35 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists) for significant stretches.
Austin Reaves recorded 19 points to go with a career-high 14 assists. Anthony Davis finished with 17 points, 11 rebounds and three blocks while D’Angelo Russell had 17 points.
James reached the milestone at the 10:39 mark of the second quarter when he made a layup over Michael Porter Jr. to give the Lakers an early 37-32 lead.
The Lakers called a timeout a little over a minute later, with the organization playing a montage of signature moments from James’ career playing in the arena before James acknowledged the crowd.
The Lakers stayed in front for the remainder of the second, leading 66-58 at halftime, and most of the third before Jokic went on a scoring barrage, scoring 13 points in a 2½ minute-stretch to give the Nuggets an 88-85 lead late in the quarter.
The Lakers got back in front Lakers 110-108 with 4:11 left after a James layup off a Reaves assist.
But the Nuggets took control from there.
Michael Porter Jr. scored 25 points on a perfect 10-for-10 shooting to go with 10 rebounds and four assists. Jamal Murray had 24 points, 11 assists and six rebounds. Aaron Gordon added 18 points, nine rebounds and five assists.
