3 Los Angeles Lakers to blame for blowout opening night loss to Nuggets

1. Anthony Davis

For as much as we like to focus on how the role players help and contribute to the Lakers, we all know that the two-star combo of LeBron James and Anthony Davis is the engine that makes this car go. LeBron did his part to begin his 21st NBA season with a team-high 21 points in just 29 minutes (and a +7 plus-minus) while adding eight rebounds (tied for the team-high) and five assists.

Davis, on the other hand, did not entirely carry his end of that bargain.

Make no mistake, one of the beautiful things about Davis as a player is that he affects games with more than just his offense, which he did somewhat against the Nuggets with eight rebounds, four assists and two blocks on the night.

Having said that, Davis also joined Hachimura in having an extremely difficult time when matched up with Jokic, which contributed heavily to his -17 plus-minus for the 34 minutes while he was on the floor. What made that possible and is even worse for the Lakers big, however, is that Davis shot a paltry 6-of-17 from the field on the night, giving LA just 17 points on the night.

One of the crucial reasons that the Lakers were able to get hot last regular season and in the playoffs was the contributions of Davis. He was an unstoppable force, averaging 22.6 points, 14.1 rebounds and 3.1 blocks per game in the postseason, which followed up a 25.9-12.5-2.0 line from the regular season.

What we saw on Tuesday night wasn't that. There are 81 games still to play, to be sure. But for the Lakers to win the majority of those contests and get back to the playoffs, Davis simply has to be more of a force than he was, even against some of the best competition in the league like Jokic.