The Lakers held Jokic, who entered the weekend leading the NBA in frontcourt touches with 56.6 touches, to 43 frontcourt touches on Saturday. He possessed the ball nearly a third less of the time on Saturday (3.1 minutes) than he did entering the matchup (4.5 minutes) and held the ball for shorter periods of time when he did have it.

There emerged two ways to evaluate the Nuggets’ loss on Saturday: Nikola Jokic’s perspective and the counter-notion that the Lakers just really wanted this one.

Nikola Jokic was quick to offer a candid assessment of his Denver Nuggets following their humbling 123-100 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers. Jokic, who was held