Getty LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers will host Paul Millsap and the Denver Nuggets on Thursday night.
LeBron James finally got his first win with the Los Angeles Lakers, but a W will be tougher to come by on Thursday night when they take on Nikola Jokic and the undefeated Denver Nuggets.
The game is scheduled to start at 10:30 p.m. ET and will be broadcast nationally on TNT. If you don’t have cable or can’t get to a TV, you can watch a live stream of the game (or DVR it) on your computer, phone or streaming device via one of the following cable-free, live-TV streaming services:
TNT is one of 85 channels included in the main Fubo bundle, which is tailored towards sports. You can sign up for a free 7-day trial right here, and you can then watch a live stream of the game on your computer via the FuboTV website, or on your phone, tablet or streaming device via the FuboTV app.
If you can’t watch live, FuboTV comes with 30 hours of Cloud DVR (with the ability to upgrade to 500 hours), as well as a “72-Hour Lookback” feature, which allows you to watch games up to three days after they air even if you forgot to record them.
In addition to a Netflix-like on-demand streaming library, Hulu also offers a bundle of 50-plus live TV channels, including TNT. You can sign up for “Hulu with Live TV” right here, and you can then watch a live stream of the game on your computer via the Hulu website, or on your phone, tablet or streaming device via the Hulu app.
If you can’t watch live, “Hulu with Live TV” comes with 50 hours of Cloud DVR storage (with the ability to upgrade to “Enhanced Cloud DVR,” which gives you 200 hours of DVR space and the ability to fast forward through commercials).
TNT is included in both the “Sling Orange” and “Sling Blue” channel packages. You can sign up for a free 7-day trial of either, and you can then watch the game live on your computer via the Sling TV website, or on your phone, tablet or streaming device via the Sling TV app.
If you can’t watch live, you can get 50 hours of cloud DVR storage as an additional add-on.
Preview
After opening his Lakers tenure with three consecutive losses, James led Los Angeles to a 131-113 blowout over the bottom-feeding Phoenix Suns on Wednesday night.
The four-time MVP amassed 19 points, 10 assists, and seven rebounds, and sat out the fourth quarter with the game no longer in doubt.
“It feels great; it’s a win, period,” James said, according to the Associated Press. “But it feels good for us to know what we’ve been doing over training camp [and] in these first few games to continue to get better.
He added: “We’re very talented offensively. But I think it’s always going to start with our defense.”
The Lakers surrendered an average of 131.7 points per game heading into Wednesday. Head coach Luke Walton noted that the team’s defense got better as the game went along.
“Our defense picked up,” Walton said, per AP. “To start the game our defense was soft. They missed some shots but that was the same thing that happened against San Antonio, but they made shots. We need to get better at that. We need to start games with the same mentality that we started the second quarter.”
Before the victory, Walton was fined $15,000 for comments he made about officiating the night prior.
“Let me start here. … I wasn’t going to say anything. I was going to save my money, but I just can’t anymore,” Walton said.
“But if we are going to play a certain way, let’s not reward people for flopping 30 feet from the hole on plays that have nothing to do with that possession. They’re just flopping just to see if they get a foul call. And then not reward players that are physically going to the basket and getting hit. It’s not right.”
The Lakers will be without Rajon Rondo and Brandon Ingram, who were suspended in the wake of the team’s weekend scuffle with the Houston Rockets.
Los Angeles will go up against one of the West’s two undefeated teams. The Nuggets are 4-0, and have already banked a victory over the Golden State Warriors.
Denver had one of the best offenses in the league a season ago, with Jokic orchestrating much of it out of the center position. But they’ve been a terror defensively in the early going in 2018-19. The Nugs rank second in the NBA in defensive rating; a year ago, they were 21st.
“This is how I envision us playing,” Nuggets head coach Mike Malone said after holding Golden State to 98 points. “Some people may call it ugly, but a win is a win, especially against that team — the reigning champs. If we continue to defend at the level we’re defending at and we get our offensive rhythm going, I think we could be a really good team.”
The Warriors and Nuggets split their season series a year ago, 2-2.