The Los Angeles Lakers lost another game against the Denver Nuggets on Saturday night, and the outcome was identical to previous games.

The Nuggets have now beaten the Lakers eight times in a row, and almost every game has been competitive until the final few minutes. From then, the Nuggets took over with outstanding offensive execution to secure the victories, while the Lakers battled on both sides of the court in crunch time.

Following their most recent loss to the Nuggets, Anthony Davis talked about what went wrong down the stretch and why Denver is so difficult to stop.

“I think tonight, Cam was in the action, Austin and Rui, and they were going to like a double screen,” Davis told reporters. “And Cam was so far behind because the guys were screening.” Rui was trying to help while also remaining attached to Jokic, and I’m the help guy, so when I see Jamal Murray come off and he’s open, obviously he’s a hell of a basketball player, so you don’t want to give him any looks because those are the two guys they look for, him first and then Jokic, and vice versa. So I tried to help, but then they hit Jokic, you know? Jokic hits Aaron Gordon on dunks or their shooters on the weak side.

“So it’s just something we need to discuss in depth. We’ll see this squad again, and it won’t be the last time they receive that package. We got to look at the tape, see what happened, and basically deconstruct it to prepare for the next time we saw them.”

The Lakers battled the Nuggets for the opening 45 minutes of the game but were unable to finish it out, as has become the norm when these two teams meet. Following the loss, Davis was asked if he believed the Lakers were coming closer to toppling the defending NBA champions.

“In a sense. “Because they do the same thing and beat us every time,” Davis explained. “Yes, we’re coming closer, especially in the opening 42 or 44 minutes. And then the final four minutes are basically them getting to where they are going. As I already stated, they hold us accountable for our faults. Granted, they made difficult shots. But they always get to it, and you know what to expect. But they’re an excellent execution team. You make one mistake with Jamal Murray’s scoring and passing abilities, and the same goes for Jokic.

“Then you have shooters around. Aaron Gordon on the glass, ducking behind smalls when I move to help, as they frequently do with the lob. Then they put a shooter in that corner and said, “Pick your position.” So they do an excellent job creating reads.”

Davis only had four second-half points in Saturday’s game, finishing with 17 overall, which is insufficient against a tough club like Denver.

Anthony Davis: Lakers must move on from Nuggets loss.The month of March is difficult for the Lakers, therefore Anthony Davis emphasized that they must move on from the Nuggets setback, despite their late-game mistakes.

“First, we have to move on from it,” Davis stated. “We play every other night, so prepare for a hot OKC club, Sacramento, Milwaukee, and all these guys. However, they consistently win the game in the final two or three minutes. Same action, and they often put us in limbo with our assistance. We had some awful plays: Bron is stripped, I am stripped, Aaron Gordon grabs the long rebound and hits a turnaround three, Austin attempts to assist, and Justin Holiday hits a three.

“So it was some tough plays for us, but the last couple minutes, they get into their fourth quarter package and we’re either over-helping or not helping enough and it seems like this team is the one that always makes us pay for our mistakes.”