Stop us if you’ve heard this before: the Denver Nuggets beat the Los Angeles Lakers 127-102, with a dominant performance in the second half.

LeBron James finished with 18 points, seven assists, six rebounds and three steals. Austin Reaves had a strong performance with 19 points, six assists and three rebounds.

Anthony Davis struggled all game, finishing with 14 points, 10 rebounds, three assists, three steals and two blocks. D’Angelo Russell posted seven points and five assists. Dalton Knecht had nine points off the bench.

Both teams had an offensively tough first half. The Nuggets shot 54% while the Lakers shot 50%. Each team finished the half with 23 rebounds and 19 assists.

The Nuggets struck first and the game moved at a fast pace. Austin scored early, going 5-5 from the field as both teams took turns taking the lead.

Rui Hachimura, who was back in the starting line-up after missing a few games, did the dirty work. He tapped the ball out twice to give the Lakers more chances to score and had himself a dunk.

After five minutes, the Lakers led by two after a three-pointer by Austin.

LA’s defense remained a struggle, but their offense was fluid. Max Christie made an immediate impact off the bench with five quick points. At the end of the first, Los Angeles trailed by four.

Julian Strawther knocked down a 3-pointer to extend Denver’s lead to seven points to start the second. LeBron answered with a mid-range shot.

Former Laker Russell Westbrook had seven assists and found his teammates all over the court.

Dalton knocked down his first 3-pointer while staying wide open from behind the arc. LA was within four again. An obvious foul on Westbrook resulted in LeBron converting on two free throws to make it a two-point game.

D’Lo hit a three-pointer and Gabe Vincent knocked down a mid-range shot to put the Lakers up three. LA’s scoring streak was extended to 17-2 and their lead was eight.

Denver warmed up and got within four points until Rui answered with a three-pointer.

As we’re used to seeing, the Lakers held the lead until halftime, 63-57.

Denver opened the second half on an 8-0 run to take a two lead. The Lakers struggled to get their offense going and couldn’t find solid defense. Cam Reddish knocked down a three-pointer to stop some purple and gold bleeding.

The Lakers committed a number of egregious turnovers while continually collapsing on defense. Overall, AD played a difficult match. His shots weren’t landing and he looked away. Los Angeles looked extremely lax and consistently careless with the ball.

Michael Porter Jr. couldn’t miss from behind the arc and went three for three from deep. The game quickly got out of hand and LA showed no concern whatsoever, with some of the worst defensive lapses they’ve had all season.

At the end of the third, the Lakers trailed by sixteen.

The final frame started with more firepower from Denver and the Lakers playing miserable basketball. The Nuggets ran away with the game and LA had no answer to what Denver was doing as they continued to pile up points.

From the end of the second to the beginning of the fourth, the Nuggets went on a 50-17 run.

The Lakers gained a tiny ounce of life under LeBron’s leadership. A dunk by Rui, assisted by LeBron, gave the crowd some energy. The Lakers cut the deficit to 16 on a three-pointer by Rui, forcing Denver to call a timeout.

A vengeful 3-pointer from Westbrook ended the game as JJ Redick conceded and cleared his bench.

Key Takeaways:

What more can we say at this point? It’s the same script against the Nuggets. The Lakers play a good enough first half to take the lead, but then fail in the second half and lose.

The terrible turnovers and lack of defense were a huge disaster. They can’t win if they don’t play clean basketball.

The Lakers’ next game is Tuesday against the Phoenix Suns at 7:00 PM PT.

You can follow Karin on Twitter at @KarinAbcarians.