LOS ANGELES — It wasn’t even a week ago that the Lakers were in a similar position that the Denver Nuggets faced on Wednesday night at Crypto.com Arena — down multiple star players in a pivotal matchup for Western Conference playoff seeding.

The Nuggets were nearly stunned by the Lakers last Friday in Denver, allowing them to stay in the game before needing a strong close to pull off the narrow victory.

The Lakers didn’t make the same mistake on Wednesday when they hosted the Nuggets, who were without Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray, pulling off a wire-to-wire 120-108 victory behind a strong start from Luka Doncic (31 points, nine rebounds and seven assists).

Doncic’s scoring total was the 200th time he’s scored at least 30 points in a regular-season game, including his eighth time in 16 games with the Lakers.

He’s scored at least 30 points in six of his last eight games.

Doncic led the Lakers (43-25) early, scoring 21 points of his scoring total in the first quarter, opening the period by assisting Jaxson Hayes (six points, rebounds) on a dunk before scoring multiple baskets inside of the arc.

From there, Doncic did more damage from beyond the arc, making three of his four 3-pointers in the opening quarter during a night the Lakers were in a collective rhythm from the perimeter.

The Lakers made 16 of their 38 3-pointer attempts (42.1%), including four 3s from Gabe Vincent (12 points) and three each from Dorian Finney-Smith (14 points, four rebounds, four assists) and Dalton Knecht (12 points).

Austin Reaves (22 points, eight assists, five rebounds) also made a pair of shots from beyond the arc.

Jarred Vanderbilt (10 points) also scored in double figures.

The Lakers jumped out to a 46-29 lead going into the second behind Doncic’s hot start. That advantage grew to a 28-point Lakers lead (69-41) midway through the quarter.

The Nuggets (44-26) cut their deficit to 73-59 behind their offensive rebounding and transition offense, but the Lakers regained control in the third, taking a 105-77 lead into the fourth that grew to 30 near the start of the quarter.

Neither team played most of its main rotation players in the fourth.

The short-handed Nuggets were led by Aaron Gordon’s double-double of 26 points and 11 rebounds.

Wednesday was the Lakers’ ninth consecutive home victory and 16th victory in their past 17 games at Crypto.com Arena.

The Lakers will host the Milwaukee Bucks tonight to close out the back-to-back set.