The Denver Nuggets (2 - 2) beat the Los Angles Lakers (0 - 4) 120 - 109 on Tuesday at the Staples Center. The Nuggets pulled off an unlikely feat Tuesday, by beating the Lakers for the fifth straight game at the Staples Center. That probably says more about where the Lakers are at this point more than the Nuggets, as the Lakers are still winless a week into the season. The referees may need to get new whistles after this game as well, as there were 53 combined fouls and 69 combined free - throw attempts Tuesday. Denver has really struggled over their last two games, suffering blowouts to the Minnesota Timberwolves and Oklahoma City Thunder, but showed up here against the hapless Lakers. The Nuggets got some great performances from their big men, as Kenneth Faried finished with 29 points and 15 boards, while fill - in J.J. Hickson tallied 17 points and seven rebounds. Those two also shot 18 - for - 21 from the field and had a lot of help from rookie Emmanuel Muiday, who recorded his first career double - double with 12 points and 10 assists. The biggest discrepancy in the stat line was that the Nuggets out - assisted the Lakers 30 - 18 and shot over 50 percent from the field. Denver will look to keep this momentum going against the Utah Jazz (2 - 1) on Thursday. The Lakers continue to struggle, as the defense is clearly one of the worst in the NBA. They are currently allowing about 117 points per game, which easily ranks near the bottom of the league. They did, however, have some nice offensive performances from Lou Williams and Jordan Clarkson in this loss. Williams scored 24 points off the bench while going 16 - of - 19 from the free - throw line, and Clarkson tied a career - high with 30 points in the loss. Things aren’t going to get much easier for the Lakers though, as 16 of their next 20 games are on the road. They start that stretch by traveling to Brooklyn (0 - 4) on Friday in a battle of winless teams.
["TeamStat(G,'Lakers') has 18 Number of team assists ,has 4 Losses ,has 109 Total points ,has 0 Wins ."
 "TeamStat(G,'Nuggets') has 30 Number of team assists ,has 2 Losses ,has 120 Total points ,has 2 Wins ."
 "PlayerStat(G,'Kenneth Faried') has 2 Assists ,has 15 Blocks ."
 "PlayerStat(G,'JJ Hickson') has 2 Assists ,has 2 Blocks ,has 17 Free throws attempted ,has 7 Free throws made ."
 "PlayerStat(G,'Emmanuel Mudiay') has 10 Assists ,has 12 Blocks ,has 2 Free throws attempted ."
 "PlayerStat(G,'Jordan Clarkson') has 30 Assists ."
 "PlayerStat(G,'Lou Williams') has 19 Assists ,has 16 Blocks ,has 24 Free throws attempted ."]