The Denver Nuggets beat the Los Angeles Lakers 119-107 in the 2023-24 NBA regular season opener at Ball Arena in Denver, Colorado, on Tuesday, decorating the championship rings they received with a victory.

There haven't been many reports about how much Nikola Jokic sweated over training during the offseason, but he obviously didn't have any rust to shake off. Having shot 12-for-22 from the field, he dropped a triple-double of 29 points, 13 rebounds and 11 assists. When the Lakers double-teamed him, he found open teammates both inside and outside with creative passing; if they wanted to test Jokic's isolation ability, he made them regret; moreover, two of three triples Jokic made were last-second shots when his teammates had no other choice.

Simply speaking, Jokic played just like he did in the playoffs last season and he led the Nuggets to sweep the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals. More importantly, his teammates in the starting lineup played like him as well. All five starters scored in double digits on Tuesday.

Jamal Murray was the Nuggets' consistent No. 2 scoring option who made eight of his 13 field goal (FG) attempts to get 21 points. He took over the offense mostly when he was leading the bench unit on the floor. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope drained four jumpers in the middle range and delivered court-high three steals. Aaron Gordon made six of his seven shots under the hoop. Michael Porter Jr. struggled with his shooting, but he grabbed 12 rebounds, the second most of both sides and behind only 13 by Jokic.

The Lakers added multiple new players to their roster during the offseason, but their problems remained the same. LeBron James was not powerful enough during half-court offense; when he and D'Angelo Russell took a break, the team lacked a trustworthy playmaker. Anthony Davis was still unable to beat Jokic's defense in separation possessions, especially when he missed six of his eight jump shots. The purple and gold shot 10-for-29 from downtown, giving the Nuggets no reasons to worry about closing in on the defensive end.

Coach Darvin Ham put Taurean Prince in the Lakers' starting lineup and he was the best-performing one of all new arrivals by making four triples to score the team's second-highest 18 points. As for the rest new members, Cam Reddish didn't have much to contribute outside defense; Gabe Vincent still has a lot to work on getting familiar with the Lakers' system; Christian Wood made some offensive highlights, which, however, were not enough to offset his poor defensive work.

In the other game on Tuesday, the Phoenix Suns edged the Golden State Warriors 108-104 at Chase Center in San Francisco, California. Neither team sent their complete squad to the court as the Suns sidelined their biggest offseason signing Bradley Beal because of back injury; the Warriors lacked their best defender Draymond Green due to an ankle issue.

The Suns replaced Beal with Grayson Allen, a typical 3D (3-point shooting and defensive-minded) player, in the starting lineup. Having to count on Devin Booker and Kevin Durant in playmaking, the team couldn't play too complicated offense. Neither did they have. Booker shot 13-for-21 from the field to drop game-high 32 points. He missed only two of his 10 shots in the first half to get 21 points, but fell into a relative slump in the final two quarters, partly because the opponents double-teamed him more in the second half.

Durant had a double-double of 18 points and 10 rebounds, but 15 of his 22 FG attempts ended as bricks. The Warriors remained physical in guarding him, keeping him from finding his shooting rhythm. Josh Okogie was the third-best-performing player of the Suns on Tuesday night. Not only did he make seven of his nine shots to get 17 points, the only 3-pointer Okogie made in the game extended their lead to safe four points (103-99) when there was only one minute left.

Fairly speaking, the Suns didn't perform in the best way they could against the Warriors. Their simple offensive pattern led to 19 turnovers that translated into 22 points for the Warriors. Nonetheless, Booker and Durant could still keep the team's offense at an acceptable level with their superb individual attacks, especially when they had Jusuf Nurkic to set screens for them and distribute the ball in the high post.

By contrast, the Warriors didn't have that kind of luxury. When their ace Stephen Curry was getting fouled or being double-teamed, they had no reliable second-in-command to stand out and take over the offensive load. Chris Paul is too old to do much more than orchestrating; Andrew Wiggins struggled with finishing; Klay Thompson shot and missed too many triples.

The Warriors were also too small, like they have been all these years. They were equally matched with the Suns in offensive rebounds (18-17), but the Suns led on the defensive glass 43-31. Such size difference enabled Nurkic to keep stirring up trouble in the Warriors paint with a double-double of 14 points and 14 rebounds, including making the final deal-sealing layup.

Judging by the Warriors' rotations in the preseason games, it's easy to tell that coach Steve Kerr had great expectations on Jonathan Kuminga. Having gone 4-for-8 to score 12 points, six rebounds and two steals, he wasn't a total bust, but by committing three fouls in a bit more than three minutes in the first quarter, the 21-year-old didn't give people enough reasons to praise him. Having entered his third NBA season, he must perform better, for the sake of both the team and himself, if he wants to negotiate a good contract extension after this season.