Did Lakers show Nuggets’ win streak was fool’s gold?

Renck: A podcaster solved the Rubik’s cube that is Nikola Jokic. This was the ridiculous fallout from the Lakers’ rout of the Nuggets on Saturday night. Excuse me while I send disingenuous Oh-Nos! to Los Angeles. Coach J.J. Redick, a former pod partner with LeBron James, went sleepless for 24 hours to devise a body-on-body, double-team scheme that limited Jokic to an underwhelming triple-double undermined by six turnovers. Los Angeles snapped the Nuggets’ nine-game winning streak and ended an eight-game drought at Ball Arena. It raises two questions with 25 games remaining: Was the Nuggets’ recent heater a mirage? And can they avoid falling to the fourth seed in the Western Conference?

Keeler: Part of the reason the Nuggets looked a step slow against the hated Los Angeles Lukas was the three weeks they spent feasting on cupcakes. Hornets? Nom! Pelicans? Nom! Sixers? Blazers? Nom Nom! Denver went through the softest part of its slate the way Cookie Monster goes through a box of Thin Mints. The Nuggets’ five Feb. 1-20 opponents opened this week a combined 69 games under .500. Look, you’ve got to make hay while the Suns stink, and they did that with gusto. But have you seen March? It’s maddening. The Nuggets have the second toughest remaining strength of schedule of any team. And the four teams they’re battling for seeds 2-4? Memphis: Eighth toughest SOS. Houston: 17th toughest. The L.A. LeBrons: Third toughest. Minnesota: Third easiest. Yikes.

Renck: The Nuggets’ nine-game feast came with a plethora of empty calories. The brilliant Jokic did not deny it. The loss Saturday revealed issues that surfaced in the playoffs last spring: the importance of The Other Guys and the need for quicker adjustments by coach Michael Malone. If teams try to make Jokic miserable, he needs help from Michael Porter Jr., Aaron Gordon and Christian Braun. And Malone must use Jokic as a screener, screen for him and demand he shoot open 3s. The Lakers sold out for one game, tipping their hand. The Nuggets face L.A. two more times in the regular season. When the Nuggets secure a top 3 seed, nobody will care about what happened last weekend.

Keeler: Malone’s pinned between Castle Rock and a hard place because we also learned from last spring the importance of load management down the stretch. The Nuggets pushed for the top seed at the end of the regular season, and the best starting five in the NBA hit a wall in the Western semis. But the West is unrelenting, and now ESPN’s franchise of choice — those mugs in purple and gold — are feeling frisky again. What do you do? If it’s about avoiding the Thunder early, you slam the pedal to the metal to stay out of that fourth slot. But if you sell out in March and April, how much will you have left in the tank come May?

Renck: Eight of the Nuggets’ final 25 games are against the Thunder, Lakers, Pacers, Celtics and Timberwolves. Falling to a fourth seed would set up a second-round matchup with OKC, and an early exit. The Nuggets are positioned to finish strong, but only if they learn this from the embarrassment: They are going nowhere without helping Jokic and playing stronger defense.