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 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.

Three-time MVP Nikola Jokic finished the loss with 12 points, 13 rebounds, ten assists and one steal while shooting 2/7 from the field and 0/1 from the three-point range in 35 minutes of playing time.