The Los Angeles Lakers face the Denver Nuggets on Tuesday night in their first matchup of the 2025-26 NBA season. Both teams enter shorthanded, with Denver missing key players including Nikola Jokic. LeBron James, snubbed from the All-Star starting lineup, looks to lead the Lakers in Denver's high altitude.
The Los Angeles Lakers (25-16), sitting sixth in the Western Conference, travel to Ball Arena in Denver to take on the third-place Denver Nuggets (29-14) on January 20, 2026, at 10 p.m. ET. This Western Conference showdown marks the teams' first meeting this season, following a 2-2 split in their four games last year. The Lakers are coming off a 110-93 victory over Toronto on Sunday, while the Nuggets fell 110-87 to Charlotte the same day. In their most recent encounter in March 2025, Los Angeles won 120-108.
Betting odds vary slightly across sportsbooks: DraftKings lists the Lakers as 2.5-point favorites with an over/under of 228.5 points, while others show Lakers -1.5 and 227.5 total. The SportsLine Projection Model, after simulating the game 10,000 times, predicts the over to hit, projecting 233 combined points. Both teams boast strong over records this season—Denver at 27-16 and Los Angeles at 25-16—with recent trends supporting high-scoring affairs. Last season's four meetings averaged 234.3 points. Denver leads the NBA in offensive rating but ranks 25th defensively, while the Lakers are seventh offensively and 26th defensively.
Injuries plague Denver, with Nikola Jokic sidelined, alongside Aaron Gordon, Jamal Murray, Christian Braun, and Jonas Valanciunas either out or limited. This has weakened their rebounding, allowing nearly eight more rebounds per game since December 29. For the Lakers, LeBron James was overlooked as an All-Star starter for the first time in his 23-year career, announced Monday. James has averaged 7.6 rebounds and 7.6 assists over his last nine games in January, exceeding 12.5 combined in seven of them. The game airs on Altitude Sports and streams on Fubo.
Post-game, Denver faces the Washington Wizards on Thursday, and Los Angeles hosts the Clippers next.
