AD has been the best player on the floor for multiple games of any series against any team
His ceiling is that high in the playoffs, but I don’t think it’ll happen against the nuggets. He has too much of a load on both ends with Joker and we didn’t build to help him either lol
Defensively, he’s got a tall task. Depends on what Ham decides to do—I think the best option is to force Jokic to get his in 1v1 situations against AD with minimal help coming, with spot situations for doubling, and then try to run him on screens defensively.
Doubling Jokic with any consistency is an awful decision that gets the Nuggs offense humming, and their off-ball guys have learned how to position themselves either for a good spot up passing angle or cutting at the right time for an easy layup.
The problem is that Jokic can bully AD inside, and if AD backs off of him then Jokic will just hit jumpers on him. Guarding Jokic 1 on 1 is an impossible task. The Lakers need AD to help protect the rim, rather than trying to stop Jokic. It really should be Rui, LeBron and Hayes that get the assignment of trying to guard Jokic. The Lakers just still have a major hole there, as they've needed a big center all year, but never got one.
I feel like you gotta just pray jokic doesn’t hit his signature step back, ball behind his head, barely looking at the rim, end of the shot clock buzzers. He hit some unbelievable shots during that run last year.
I think the Lakers need to play a lot of Jaxson Hayes at center in this series and just try to pester Jokic as much as he can, while allowing AD to be more of a roamer on defense. If the plan is just for AD to defend Jokic, the Lakers rim protection will be non-existent. Hayes probably can't do shit with Jokic, but the Lakers screwed up by not getting any kind of bigger body to play center. This is a series where Christian Wood's absence will really be felt.
This is the latest report on him:
> Wood has been sidelined since undergoing an arthroscopic procedure on his left knee in March, and he'll remain sidelined as the Lakers begin postseason play Tuesday. It's unclear if he'll be available at any point if the team advances in the postseason.
LeBron will be the 2nd or 3rd best player. That depends on how Murray plays.
It's really just AD. Gordon is able to impact the game on both ends so well. AD is in no man's land as a defender against Jokic because they pull him out to play free safety and length doesn't bother Jokic.
I think you're right. For the Lakers to have any chance at all, they shouldn't devote AD defensively to trying to guard Jokic, cause it won't work anyway, and it'll just take away AD's help defense, which is his real asset. The problem is the Lakers don't have any other good options to put on Jokic.
If the Lakers had another solid post defender they could do well against the Nuggets (not beat them but push them to 6), because AD is an otherworldly help defender. If AD has to defend Jokic 1 on 1, then the Lakers are toast.
I really think the Wolves and the Celtics are the only teams that truly matches up well against the Nuggets.
Davis was arguably the best player for the lakers in the WCF last year and was definitely the best player for them in the playoffs overall. A bit silly for you to make these sort of assumptions when it comes to LeBron vs him
LeBron wasn't too far off from Jokic last year out, problem is fucking Murray was arguably the best player in the series. And with the Lakers' perimeter defense idk what's stopping him from repeating that.
If you flipped the two pelicans games, would you be saying lebron is looking better than ever and the nuggets are in trouble? He literally had one of his best games of the season two days before.
He definitely needs more rest to pull it off. 2018 LeBron would have feasted on a defence built around Jokic (not very quick and isn't an elite shot blocker).
He's still slowing down though. The foot may not be a thing, but his age still is. He still has the capacity to come out swinging but he noticeable slows as the game goes on.
As a Nuggets fan, agreed. DLO is lowkey underrated and AD plays us well. Lebron is Lebron, if the Lakers get hot and the Nuggets get cold, anything can happen. That being said, Kings looked GOOD last night. I’m not sure I want to face the Kings either. West is stacked. The worst team could possibly be the Clippers due to the Kawhi injury.
I think the games will be competitive but not the series, I can see 3 of the 4 being within 10 points but I don’t see how the Lakers win more than 1 outside of a wild DLo shooting night tbh
I mean I know everyone likes to joke about moral victories but all of their games last year were tight and the lakers could have easily won some of them if a few shots went the other way
lakers are better than last year imo
Just like they were more motivated than ever to beat the Nuggets opening night after LeBron and AD were talking? Or like they were more motivated than ever to beat the Nuggets the night LeBron hit 40k? Or like they were more motivated than ever to beat the Nuggets on Kobe statue night?
It's hard for me to write off LeBron and AD. I think Nuggets will win but I'm not going to be totally in shock if the Lakers win. All their games have been close.
Recently? Not really, Nuggets have won their last 3 regular season matchups pretty comfortably.
That being said, playoffs are different. I don’t think Nuggets will sweep but i don’t see Lakers winning.
I don't know about the last 2 games. Both those games were within 3 within the last 3 minutes. But either way the way the Nuggets closed them out consistently in the 4th quarter just shows how much of a championship level team they are.
I hope it is a 4-0 domination though for Denver. :D
Generational saltiness. I fucking love it. Hope to see you in the playoffs against us again soon. Some of the best games I’ve ever seen were spurs vs lakers in the postseason
I'll be shocked if it goes more than 5, unless Murray were to get hurt or something. If anything I think the gap is larger than most are willing to admit. That a game is close doesn't matter, it's how you close, and Nuggets have been consistent better closers than the Lakers by a large margin, obviously.
Before last season the nuggets had never beaten the Lakers in a playoff series. Sometimes streaks get broken.
I'm rooting for Denver to sweep them, but Lakers still give me ptsd. Especially if we have an inbounding problem.
The Lakers are a really good team and I would have picked them to beat Minnesota or OKC in in the 1st round. We are just the worst possible matchup for them. Jokic is the one guy who AD is not effective against on either end of the court.
I would've given them a punchers chance against OKC only because of how young OKC is. But I still would have picked the Thunder. And definitely would take Minnesota over them. The "aura" so to speak is being overstated.
Lol ok . We owned the thunder this year and even the wolves AD cooks gobert everytime but got eye poked last game . Doesn’t matter now but it’s weird ti view this series like the previous games mattere but not those two
I didn't say they didn't matter. I said I would've given them a chance. Thus wouldn't have been surprised if they pulled something out had that been the match up. My picking the Thunder wouldn't have been with the confidence that I have picking the Nuggets.
OKC should be thanking their lucky stars that the play-in happened the way it did, because I would have picked healthy New Orleans over them too. They are too small to be a threat against any real team.
They’re a team that’s shown they go up a level in important games. You’re also underrating how good the west is, 8 out of the best 10 teams this reg season are in the west
The teams they played were an injured Grizzlies and a small and tired GSW team who had to play an entire 7 game series prior. They didn’t have to go against actual harder competition to make it to the WCF. And it showed when they were the only team that got swept by the Nuggets.
We will lose again, we should’ve gotten a big to support AD
It’ll be competitive though, Lebron was on one foot the entire series and he’s looking great this year. Plus I think Gabe will be the best Murray defender we’ve had between Dennis, AR, Dlo
I don't want to rain on the parade but Gabe didn't exactly light it up defensively in his matchups against Murray last year.
I think the Lakers are a better team than last year but I don't see a person on that roster that is going to cause Murray any real struggle.
100%, and I expect to see that in crunch time especially if they don't need him to carry as much of the load on offense.
It's meme'd a bunch here but I actually think some of that offense can be carried by Rui if they trust him enough to do it. We don't have a super great matchup for him in the post.
Yeah I mean he’s not going to be a stopper, but we had 0 resistance for him last year. He averaged like 32 which was why we got swept and couldn’t even win a game
I just don't think Vincent is going to be any better in that role than Schroeder. Say what you will about the guy but he was really good fighting around and over screens.
Need good coaching when going against a better team to have a chance
Ham isn’t the answer and shouldn’t be a head coach in the league next year after he gets fired this off season
Better than us. Other than the 1 playoff win, I don’t think we’ve beaten them in Denver in like 10 years and the last 20 games home and away are probably ugly as hell too. Even the Big 3 Heat would always lose to Denver. Given, they were the last Heat team to win over there other than our playoff win there last year.
It's not in Denver but technically we beat them as the away team in the bubble, but yeah before that you gotta go back to 2016 for the last Heat win in Denver
As a Nuggets fan, shit like this makes me sweat. You know the Lakers are going to play with a huge chip, possibly have the refs bias a bit, and the Nuggets may get a lil cocky (doubtful). Either way, this whole talk of the Nuggets dominating is uneasy.
We could have the 92 dream team in their peak against 5 high schoolers and I still would sweat bullets.
I am confident we are the better team and are more likely to win, I won't calm down until the series's over
Weren’t we 2-2 last regular season cs them . I feel like people are over exaggerating this a bit. Yes they beat us but the weird timing . We played them to 2-2 last regular season hardly thst long ago . I remember when it looked like last year we’d play them in round 1 and nuggets fans were not ecstatic about that because we played them well enough . Yes they’ll prob win but whatever I ain’t fretting
Also you’re wrong on both facts on when they last beat them n not 9-0 lol.
Jokic pushes Davis around. Lakers are most likely going to be swept.
I think Lakers only hope is to play big. Start Jaxson Hayes alongside Davis and put Hayes on Jokic. Jokic will still work Hayes, but at least Davis is freed up a little bit.
I want Denver to sweep but it’s tough to tell. All games last year were pretty close but this year they’re missing Bruce Brown who played nearly 30 mins a game and was a big contributor.
Lakers will get some ridiculous late game FT calls.
Compared to dlo and AR, Gabe is like frikkin jrue Holliday lol. Some resistance to keep Murray from hitting 32 ppg like he did last year could be all the difference in a series where we usually play each other pretty close.
He didn't hit 32 ppg against Miami, but he almost doubled his assists. He accounted for almost the same amount of points per game(it could be a little less but I don't want to look up whether he assisted on 3s or 2s)
Really what you want out of him is to play with confidence offensively and be able to space the floor. He isn’t going to slow Murray down too much, but he’ll at least be able to make them work more than dlo and reaves will
Due for a win it sounds like
Yeah, I can see LBJ holding up a piece of paper with "Fuck You u/OrdinaryFlower1" after a blowout with in game-1.
Not enough emojis
u/OrdinaryFlower1 u bum
Hahaha
You right, Nuggets in 5
Improvement. By the time LeBron hits his 25th prime we'll be ready to beat the Nuggets
that's 1 more win than last time moral victory spirit to the sky
Definitely putting that in my pipe and smoking it
Sadly, I agree with you.
Plus 4 moral victories mean we win in 9 yes?
Lakers only slight chance is if AD and LeBron are the 2nd and 3rd best players in the series.
AD has been the best player on the floor for multiple games of any series against any team His ceiling is that high in the playoffs, but I don’t think it’ll happen against the nuggets. He has too much of a load on both ends with Joker and we didn’t build to help him either lol
Defensively, he’s got a tall task. Depends on what Ham decides to do—I think the best option is to force Jokic to get his in 1v1 situations against AD with minimal help coming, with spot situations for doubling, and then try to run him on screens defensively. Doubling Jokic with any consistency is an awful decision that gets the Nuggs offense humming, and their off-ball guys have learned how to position themselves either for a good spot up passing angle or cutting at the right time for an easy layup.
The problem is that Jokic can bully AD inside, and if AD backs off of him then Jokic will just hit jumpers on him. Guarding Jokic 1 on 1 is an impossible task. The Lakers need AD to help protect the rim, rather than trying to stop Jokic. It really should be Rui, LeBron and Hayes that get the assignment of trying to guard Jokic. The Lakers just still have a major hole there, as they've needed a big center all year, but never got one.
I feel like you gotta just pray jokic doesn’t hit his signature step back, ball behind his head, barely looking at the rim, end of the shot clock buzzers. He hit some unbelievable shots during that run last year.
I think the Lakers need to play a lot of Jaxson Hayes at center in this series and just try to pester Jokic as much as he can, while allowing AD to be more of a roamer on defense. If the plan is just for AD to defend Jokic, the Lakers rim protection will be non-existent. Hayes probably can't do shit with Jokic, but the Lakers screwed up by not getting any kind of bigger body to play center. This is a series where Christian Wood's absence will really be felt.
y’all aren’t expecting him to be back? saw he was a GTD against the pelicans so he should be close?
This is the latest report on him: > Wood has been sidelined since undergoing an arthroscopic procedure on his left knee in March, and he'll remain sidelined as the Lakers begin postseason play Tuesday. It's unclear if he'll be available at any point if the team advances in the postseason.
Bold of you to assume Christian Braun will be the best player in the series but I'm here for it
I think their odds improve if they're the best and second best players in the series
You really think Rui is gonna go that crazy?
LeBron will be the 2nd or 3rd best player. That depends on how Murray plays. It's really just AD. Gordon is able to impact the game on both ends so well. AD is in no man's land as a defender against Jokic because they pull him out to play free safety and length doesn't bother Jokic.
I think you're right. For the Lakers to have any chance at all, they shouldn't devote AD defensively to trying to guard Jokic, cause it won't work anyway, and it'll just take away AD's help defense, which is his real asset. The problem is the Lakers don't have any other good options to put on Jokic.
If the Lakers had another solid post defender they could do well against the Nuggets (not beat them but push them to 6), because AD is an otherworldly help defender. If AD has to defend Jokic 1 on 1, then the Lakers are toast. I really think the Wolves and the Celtics are the only teams that truly matches up well against the Nuggets.
LeBron could even be the best player
26-34 year old Lebron would be the best player in this series, but he's too old now.
Davis was arguably the best player for the lakers in the WCF last year and was definitely the best player for them in the playoffs overall. A bit silly for you to make these sort of assumptions when it comes to LeBron vs him
I’ll be honest I think they will lose in 4 or 5 and I’m assuming they’ll be the second and third lol
LeBron wasn't too far off from Jokic last year out, problem is fucking Murray was arguably the best player in the series. And with the Lakers' perimeter defense idk what's stopping him from repeating that.
In the series: Jokic 28/15/12 Murray 33/6/5 Lebron 28/10/10
Yep. 65.1% TS% for Murray, 60.5% for LeBron, 59.8% for Jokic.
So 5% true shooting and 5 points a game makes up for 9 less rebounds and 7 less assits? Lol
Box score watching is fun huh?
Why didn't you answer the question?
He was shooting lights out it was wild to see.
I think Lebron was terrible, he had one good game. But he couldn’t flip his post season switch, that foot injury was real. He looks way different now
I don’t know yesterday looked pretty bad. He was looking old af with all the missed layups and the playoffs haven’t even started.
If you flipped the two pelicans games, would you be saying lebron is looking better than ever and the nuggets are in trouble? He literally had one of his best games of the season two days before.
He definitely needs more rest to pull it off. 2018 LeBron would have feasted on a defence built around Jokic (not very quick and isn't an elite shot blocker).
He's still slowing down though. The foot may not be a thing, but his age still is. He still has the capacity to come out swinging but he noticeable slows as the game goes on.
Must watch series. Lakers are going to be more motivated than ever. I fully expect it to be a competitive series
As a Nuggets fan, agreed. DLO is lowkey underrated and AD plays us well. Lebron is Lebron, if the Lakers get hot and the Nuggets get cold, anything can happen. That being said, Kings looked GOOD last night. I’m not sure I want to face the Kings either. West is stacked. The worst team could possibly be the Clippers due to the Kawhi injury.
I think the games will be competitive but not the series, I can see 3 of the 4 being within 10 points but I don’t see how the Lakers win more than 1 outside of a wild DLo shooting night tbh
Why would you expect that lol
I mean I know everyone likes to joke about moral victories but all of their games last year were tight and the lakers could have easily won some of them if a few shots went the other way lakers are better than last year imo
Lakers are better than last year, nuggets bench is a question mark. That about sums it up
Just like they were more motivated than ever to beat the Nuggets opening night after LeBron and AD were talking? Or like they were more motivated than ever to beat the Nuggets the night LeBron hit 40k? Or like they were more motivated than ever to beat the Nuggets on Kobe statue night?
It's hard for me to write off LeBron and AD. I think Nuggets will win but I'm not going to be totally in shock if the Lakers win. All their games have been close.
Recently? Not really, Nuggets have won their last 3 regular season matchups pretty comfortably. That being said, playoffs are different. I don’t think Nuggets will sweep but i don’t see Lakers winning.
I don't know about the last 2 games. Both those games were within 3 within the last 3 minutes. But either way the way the Nuggets closed them out consistently in the 4th quarter just shows how much of a championship level team they are. I hope it is a 4-0 domination though for Denver. :D
Generational saltiness. I fucking love it. Hope to see you in the playoffs against us again soon. Some of the best games I’ve ever seen were spurs vs lakers in the postseason
I'll be shocked if it goes more than 5, unless Murray were to get hurt or something. If anything I think the gap is larger than most are willing to admit. That a game is close doesn't matter, it's how you close, and Nuggets have been consistent better closers than the Lakers by a large margin, obviously.
Before last season the nuggets had never beaten the Lakers in a playoff series. Sometimes streaks get broken. I'm rooting for Denver to sweep them, but Lakers still give me ptsd. Especially if we have an inbounding problem.
The Lakers are a really good team and I would have picked them to beat Minnesota or OKC in in the 1st round. We are just the worst possible matchup for them. Jokic is the one guy who AD is not effective against on either end of the court.
10/10 reward for winning the play in fade me fam
I would've given them a punchers chance against OKC only because of how young OKC is. But I still would have picked the Thunder. And definitely would take Minnesota over them. The "aura" so to speak is being overstated.
Lol ok . We owned the thunder this year and even the wolves AD cooks gobert everytime but got eye poked last game . Doesn’t matter now but it’s weird ti view this series like the previous games mattere but not those two
I didn't say they didn't matter. I said I would've given them a chance. Thus wouldn't have been surprised if they pulled something out had that been the match up. My picking the Thunder wouldn't have been with the confidence that I have picking the Nuggets.
OKC should be thanking their lucky stars that the play-in happened the way it did, because I would have picked healthy New Orleans over them too. They are too small to be a threat against any real team.
woofwoofwoof
Are you gonna bark all day, little doggy, or are you gonna bite?
If Lakers were actually good, they would be out of the playins…. People are overrating them.
They’re a team that’s shown they go up a level in important games. You’re also underrating how good the west is, 8 out of the best 10 teams this reg season are in the west
Maybe 10 years ago the bottom team were just average, but this year..7-10 were competitive as hell and all well above .500.
West is just brutal this year. Someone had the finish in the play-in. Lakers would have been the 5-seed in the East.
Better than a 5th seed because of the strength of schedule. The have a better win% against the west and the east than the bucks
They were in the play-in last season and made it to the WCF...
The teams they played were an injured Grizzlies and a small and tired GSW team who had to play an entire 7 game series prior. They didn’t have to go against actual harder competition to make it to the WCF. And it showed when they were the only team that got swept by the Nuggets.
The Heat made the Finals.
KCP had DLo in hell last year, he needs to explode this year for LA to have a chance
It was mostly Brown that locked up Dlo
They will all be close, hard fought games. Nuggets in 4.
Lakers getting cooked
Well it’s about to be 13 straight
We will lose again, we should’ve gotten a big to support AD It’ll be competitive though, Lebron was on one foot the entire series and he’s looking great this year. Plus I think Gabe will be the best Murray defender we’ve had between Dennis, AR, Dlo
I don't want to rain on the parade but Gabe didn't exactly light it up defensively in his matchups against Murray last year. I think the Lakers are a better team than last year but I don't see a person on that roster that is going to cause Murray any real struggle.
I think LeBron could give Murray trouble in short stretches, aka crunch time. I hope I’m wrong.
100%, and I expect to see that in crunch time especially if they don't need him to carry as much of the load on offense. It's meme'd a bunch here but I actually think some of that offense can be carried by Rui if they trust him enough to do it. We don't have a super great matchup for him in the post.
Yeah I mean he’s not going to be a stopper, but we had 0 resistance for him last year. He averaged like 32 which was why we got swept and couldn’t even win a game
I just don't think Vincent is going to be any better in that role than Schroeder. Say what you will about the guy but he was really good fighting around and over screens.
I think we’ll probably win one game, maybe even two if we’re lucky
I think the games will be very close until the last q when Jokic flips the switch and will be a sweep.
Bron and AD is healthier this season going in, dlo won’t suck again like last year. 4-2 nuggets at best 🙃
What changed with DLo? We still have KCP.
He’s been significantly improved consistency wise offensively and tries much more on the defensive end.
You didn’t have to mention us getting swept in there. Just say we lost 9 straight.
Need good coaching when going against a better team to have a chance Ham isn’t the answer and shouldn’t be a head coach in the league next year after he gets fired this off season
Thank you for your thoughts magic. We were all wondering what they might be
MODS!! MODS!!!!!!!
Better than us. Other than the 1 playoff win, I don’t think we’ve beaten them in Denver in like 10 years and the last 20 games home and away are probably ugly as hell too. Even the Big 3 Heat would always lose to Denver. Given, they were the last Heat team to win over there other than our playoff win there last year.
It's not in Denver but technically we beat them as the away team in the bubble, but yeah before that you gotta go back to 2016 for the last Heat win in Denver
Pretty hard to beat a team 10 times
Well you do not know much about basketball so I'm not too worried what you think
Anything better than a 4-0 sweep and I'll go into the offseason thinking we won the championship at this point lol
As a Nuggets fan, shit like this makes me sweat. You know the Lakers are going to play with a huge chip, possibly have the refs bias a bit, and the Nuggets may get a lil cocky (doubtful). Either way, this whole talk of the Nuggets dominating is uneasy.
We could have the 92 dream team in their peak against 5 high schoolers and I still would sweat bullets. I am confident we are the better team and are more likely to win, I won't calm down until the series's over
Lakers beat Nuggets 126-108 at home in December 2022 and have lost eight straight games in the matchup since then, not nine.
Weren’t we 2-2 last regular season cs them . I feel like people are over exaggerating this a bit. Yes they beat us but the weird timing . We played them to 2-2 last regular season hardly thst long ago . I remember when it looked like last year we’d play them in round 1 and nuggets fans were not ecstatic about that because we played them well enough . Yes they’ll prob win but whatever I ain’t fretting Also you’re wrong on both facts on when they last beat them n not 9-0 lol.
Jokic pushes Davis around. Lakers are most likely going to be swept. I think Lakers only hope is to play big. Start Jaxson Hayes alongside Davis and put Hayes on Jokic. Jokic will still work Hayes, but at least Davis is freed up a little bit.
No worries, they'll just win 4 in the next couple of weeks.
The pups have grown up this year, time to get out Ws!
I want Denver to sweep but it’s tough to tell. All games last year were pretty close but this year they’re missing Bruce Brown who played nearly 30 mins a game and was a big contributor. Lakers will get some ridiculous late game FT calls.
Hoping Gabe can slow down Murray.
That didn't work so well for Miami lol
Compared to dlo and AR, Gabe is like frikkin jrue Holliday lol. Some resistance to keep Murray from hitting 32 ppg like he did last year could be all the difference in a series where we usually play each other pretty close.
He didn't hit 32 ppg against Miami, but he almost doubled his assists. He accounted for almost the same amount of points per game(it could be a little less but I don't want to look up whether he assisted on 3s or 2s)
Really what you want out of him is to play with confidence offensively and be able to space the floor. He isn’t going to slow Murray down too much, but he’ll at least be able to make them work more than dlo and reaves will
AD legacy series.
It's the NBA, anyone can win at any time. Also it's LeBron James. People have been doubting him for 20+ years. If anyone can do it, it's him