Dwight Howard had 28 points, eight assists and 20 rebounds as the Los Angeles Lakers thumped the Denver Nuggets 122-103.
The Lakers' top scorer Antawn Jamison added 33 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, Jodie Meeks scored 21 points to tie his career high seven 3-pointers and Kobe Bryant contributed with 14 points and eight assists.
Lakers were brilliant in offense against Denver, dishing out a total 33 assists and making 54 percent of their shots from the field.
"It's the way we want to play," the Associated Press quoted Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni as saying. "We've got a lot of talent out there, and it's got to mesh, and the ball has got to move. ... So many guys had good games.
"I just thought the ball was moving better -- just a lot of good things happening."
Jamison converted 13 out of 19 attempts from the field, while Howard made 12 of 16.
"Give me some minutes, and I can make something happen," Jamison said. "I was just able to feed off those guys looking for me. Once I do that, I get into a rhythm, and from there, they don't know what to do."
The reserve players played very well against Denver, scoring 61 points, out of which 54 were added by Meeks and Jamison.
"I had some big games in college, but not too many games where I only missed two shots," Meeks said. "I think everybody is more confident now. We're at .500, so we've got to get over .500 and keep rolling."
For Denver, forward Danilo Gallinari was the top scorer with 19 points, whereas Andre Iguodala scored 14 points, Jordan Hamilton added 13 points and chipped in eight rebounds and Andre Miller and JaVale McGee scored 10 points apiece.
"After we saw what happened to them in that Indiana game, as coaches, we said: 'Wow, now we've got to play them after they played so poorly against Indiana,'" Denver coach George Karl said. "I thought we fought up to a degree, but when they got it back up to 20, our gas tank was pretty empty."
"You know they're an up-tempo team, so we had to come out with energy, but we just didn't match their energy," Andre Miller, who had 10 points, added. "Their bench had a good game and did what they were supposed to do. They hit a lot of 3-pointers and just took off from there."
© Copyright 2024 Sports World News, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.