DENVER, Colorado: Ty Lawson scored 22 points and had eight assists as the Denver Nuggets scored 78 points in the paint en route to a 119-108 thrashing of the mistake-prone Los Angeles Lakers yesterday.
Wilson Chandler scored 23 points to lead Denver, who have won three of their past four National Basketball Association games. Chandler was filling in for injured Danilo Gallinari.
The Nuggets had a huge 78-50 point advantage in the paint and also dominated on the free-throw line. The Lakers missed 17 of 31 free throws and turned the ball over 15 times.
Lakers forward Dwight Howard went just three-of-14 from the line.
Lawson has been red-hot lately and has scored 20 or more points in seven consecutive games. Heading into Monday’s contest he was averaging 26.2 points in his previous half dozen games.
Five-time NBA champion Kobe Bryant scored a team-high 29 points and had nine assists and six rebounds for the Lakers, who had their three-game win streak snapped. Bryant has averaged over 28 points in his last five games.
“We came in and played a team that plays extremely well at home. They obviously have advantages on us in terms of their athleticism and speed,” said Bryant.
Howard finished with 15 points and 14 rebounds in the loss.
Denver seized command in the first half and never looked back. The Nuggets went on a 14-4 run late in the first quarter to take a 35-29 lead.
Kenneth Faried scored five of seven points in one stretch in the second as the Nuggets took a 52-37 lead and then led 67-54 at half-time.
After visiting Denver, the Lakers return to Staples Center arena for back-to-back games versus Minnesota and Atlanta.
Meanwhile, the Washington Wizards who started the season with just five wins from their first 33 games notched their third straight win and seventh in nine games with a 90-84 defeat of the Toronto Raptors yesterday.
While it would still take a miracle for Washington (18-37) to claim a playoff spot, the hole the Wizards found themselves in is no longer quite so deep.
“We didn’t need a wake-up call, we’ve already agreed to the fact that the second half of the season is very important,” Wizards forward Martell Webster told reporters.
“We’re not focusing on the playoffs, we’re focusing on one game at a time.
“We’ve been saying that all year and the end result is the end result. Right now we’re living in the moment and once the game’s over, onto the next.”
The return of guard John Wall, the number one overall pick in the 2010 draft and the emergence of rookie Bradley Beal, who the Wizards took with the number three selection in last year’s draft, have been the catalyst to Washington’s second half surge.
The Wizards are now 13-9 since Wall’s comeback from a knee injury that forced him to sit out the opening 33 games while Bradley, the NBA’s rookie of the month for December and January, made a team-high 20 points against the Raptors to help Washington to just their fifth road win of the season.
“I just kept shooting, I let the game come to me I wasn’t forcing anything,” said Beal. agencies
