LeBron James scored 26 points and Anthony Davis added 23 on Sunday to help the Los Angeles Lakers to their first win of the season with a 121-110 victory over the Denver Nuggets.
Russell Westbrook had 18 points for the Lakers (1-5), who had lost their first five games of the season under first-year head coach Darvin Ham.
Los Angeles were the last winless team in the NBA.
Photo: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA Today
Ham celebrated in the locker room with his team and received a celebratory dousing of water.
“We needed to prove something to ourselves,” Ham said. “Not to the world, not the media. We had to prove it to ourselves. I feel great about how we responded throughout the game.”
Westbrook, who came off the bench again and has been accepting of that role, drove the lane and scored on a layup to extend the Lakers lead to 117-106 in the final minutes as they closed out the win.
In the third quarter, he raised his arms to get fans on their feet and they obliged.
“Like I’ve mentioned since day one, whatever is needed from me to help the team win, that’s what I’ll do,” Westbrook said.
Nikola Jokic scored 23 points and Jamal Murray added a season-high 21 for the Nuggets (4-3), who had won four of their previous five and two straight games before Sunday’s loss.
Austin Reaves made a three-pointer from the top of the arc and Lonnie Walker IV drove the baseline for a dunk to give the Lakers a 113-100 advantage. That 13-point lead was their largest of the season.
The Lakers made 13 three-pointers on 13-of-30 shooting after struggling with long-range shots this season in their previous five games. The Nuggets made 15 three-pointers.
Davis was aggressive early after missing one game with lower back tightness and was questionable on Sunday, but played. He tweaked his back in a game against Denver on Wednesday last week when the Nuggets beat the Lakers 110-99 in Denver, Colorado.
Davis, who called Sunday’s game a must-win, said he would have to manage the pain.
“It’s day by day,” Davis said. “One day, I feel great. The next day [it’s hard]. Just try to manage it and keep getting treatment.”
The Lakers led 55-51 at halftime. They trailed by as many as 10 points in the first quarter, but overcame that deficit by halftime.
“They were playing with desperation, and I felt like we had them and let it slip away,” Nuggets forward Aaron Gordon said.
Elsewhere, the Pistons defeated the Warriors 128-114, the Pelicans crushed the Clippers 112-91, the Celtics beat the Wizards 112-94, the Cavaliers overcame the Knicks 121-108, the Mavericks mastered the Magic 114-105, the Spurs tamed the Timberwolves 107-98 and the Suns eclipsed the Rockets 124-109.
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