JJ Redick showed his hand when it comes to defending Nikola Jokic before his first game in Denver as the Lakers coach and still won.

“You try to limit his touches,” Redick said before the Lakers’ 123-100 win Saturday at Ball Arena that ended Denver’s nine-game win streak. “That’s what it comes down to. He’s so big. He’s so smart. He can really play angles well off-ball to get the ball. Obviously, it’s hard.”

A swarming Lakers defense made the three-time Most Valuable Player look pedestrian by preventing him from getting the ball. Jokic finished with another triple-double with 12 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists, but he only took seven shots, making two. He did most of his scoring damage at the free-throw line, where he made 8 of 10 attempts.

“It speaks to their aggression, their physicality and our inability to handle it. That ultimately falls on me to get a team ready to play. We were outplayed tonight. We were outcoached tonight,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. “For Nikola to only get seven shots, that should never be the case. Give them credit. They cross-matched, they doubled him every time. They fronted him on the elbows. They wouldn’t let him catch the ball. What’s the best way to stop a player? Don’t let him touch it. They did a hell of a job of that tonight.”

Jokic said the Lakers guarded him similarly in last season’s playoffs. Darvin Ham was coaching the Lakers then.

“It’s not something that I didn’t see,” Jokic said.

With Denver’s typically potent offense out of sorts for much of the game, the Lakers turned 22 Nuggets turnovers into 39 points. Jokic committed six turnovers, while Jamal Murray (5) and Russell Westbrook (4) combined for nine more. Los Angeles turned the ball over nine times, and the Nuggets managed 11 points off those giveaways.

“The turnovers, I think, were the game,” Murray said. “Not being able to pass the ball inside, whatever, yeah, sure, but giving them the ball is another story, right? … If you take the turnovers away, I think it’s a pretty close game.”

Aaron Gordon led the Nuggets with 24 points, while Murray (19), Westbrook (17), Michael Porter Jr. (13) and Christian Braun (10) also scored in double figures.

The Lakers’ new superstar duo delivered. Luka Doncic led all scorers with 32 points and added 10 rebounds, seven assists and four steals. LeBron James (25), Austin Reaves (23) and Rui Hachimura (21) gave the Lakers four 20-point scorers from their starting five.

The Nuggets and the Lakers meet twice more this season. Denver hosts on March 14 before the teams head to Los Angeles for their final meeting of the regular season on March 19. Then they will wait and see if they meet in the playoffs for a third consecutive year.

“We have our game plan, and we think we can execute the game plan,” Redick said 90 minutes before tipoff. “It doesn’t guarantee victory. He’s seen everything.”

LAKERS 123, NUGGETS 100

What happened: Los Angeles led by seven after the first quarter and extended the advantage to 63-54 at halftime. Denver trailed by nine to start the fourth, but the game got away from the Nuggets in the first minutes of the fourth. The Nuggets dropped to 37-20.

What went right: Aaron Gordon did a good job of making the Lakers pay for their aggressive defense on Nikola Jokic. Gordon scored a team-high 24 points on 15 shots from the field, making 4 of 7 from 3-point range.

What went wrong: On a night the Nuggets needed perimeter shooters, Julian Strawther was available for just 1 minute and 26 seconds in the first half. He picked up four fouls in fewer than 90 seconds of playing time.

Highlight of the night: Austin Reaves’ behind-the-back pass in transition to LeBron James, who finished through a Jamal Murray foul in the third quarter, was objectively the best play of the night. Denver’s finest moment came earlier when Nikola Jokic threaded a pass out of a double team to Aaron Gordon for a dunk in the middle of the second quarter.

Up next: The Nuggets start a four-game road trip Monday in Indianapolis.