The Joker Seeks The King's Trouble For The First Time Since The Bubble! | Official Lakers (#7) vs. Nuggets (#1) WCF Thread

[Gil Scott-Heroin]

Lakers are in uncharted territory for this playoffs in dropping game 1

They beat the Grizz and Dubs in the first two rounds which maybe allowed them to take their feet off the gas for game 2 because they got the split and took home court advantage

How do they respond?

Will they have tired legs? Will the altitude get to them? Can AD and Bron play 40+ minutes again? Can AD put together a similar performance on both ends?

This can't be emphasized enough.

LA went all out on this game and applied max effort (both AD and Bron played 40+ minutes), which as you've said, had them winning Game 1 in each of their last two series'. They're going to have to bring the same effort and intensity in Game 2 (which we haven't seen them do on the road), in altitude., to take the split.

 

[StatUS]

I saw Reaves hit some ridiculous shots and Rui too. Are we expecting Bron to have this type of energy throughout the series to be scoring like he did in Game 1? Are we expecting AD to show up on offense consistently in every game?

The only reason the Lakers are getting the benefit of the doubt from y'all is that the Nuggets' play is foreign to y'all. Naturally, you're going to overemphasize what you believe is an outlier of play for them, but won't apply the same to the Lakers.

We'll know more after the next game where both these two teams sit.

Foreign? I got IPTV. I've seen plenty of the Nuggets on Altitude

I picked against the Lakers the last two series because of their "inconsistencies" but they've proven against the notion and are just as hard to beat at home as Denver.

They obviously figured something out defensively in the 2nd half now let's see if Jokic fully adjust and puts them down in Game 2.

 

[Braman]

This ain’t the lakers kcp reeves is done for no matter what

Pistons KCP, Georgia KCP…PCP…Lakers aint losing this series bc they can’t stop KCP bruh He’ll hit timely shots of course but defending a player like him is an effort thing.

 

[Raquinotj]

I think the Heat have no shot against Denver but Boston can give them problems mostly because I think Horford will do more to contain Jokic than Bam.

I think Lakers win this series though. Denver’s supporting pieces aren’t consistent enough to beat a tough-minded Lakers team with healthy AD and Lebron. I mostly trust LAL role players more too.

nobody can stop Jokic but the Celtics have Grant Williams that can hold his own Vs Jokic when Horford/Williams are taking a rest and can give you 6 additional fouls.

 

[jaydawg08]

If Rui is going to be able to "guard" joker 1 on 1 denver wont win another game this series and they certainly wont beat boston because thats gonna be horford.

Some things that wont happen again this series.

A. Austin Reeves hitting 5 3s and scoring 23
B. Denver shooting 50+% from 3 until midway through the 4th quarter
C. Gordon, MPJ, BB and Gordon combining for 60+ points on better than 50% shooting combined
D. Rui shooting 70% and guarding Joker like hes prime draymon

Uhhhh have you not seen Austin? He's scored:

23 on 4 3s in Game 6
15 on 3 3s in Game 5
21 on 3 3s in Game 4

This is exactly who Austin Reaves is... and honestly people were saying that the GS was a "poor" series from him

Also Rui isn't gonna defend Jokic 1v1. It's Rui holding his own with AD camping in the paint cause Gordon needs to be out there to guard Bron, and Bron playing "Help the helper" and stopping the passing lanes/cuts

Rui has been an elite level scorer from the midrange basically all season, the 1 thing that I always thought was not sustainable was his 3 pt shot

 

[Left.A1]

Dare i say we might see darvin dust off thompson this series if AD gets in foul trouble instead of going small and getting killed on the glass

they do need another rebounder but now you’re putting LeBron on Porter Jr … idk if you want him chasing MPJ around defending those 3s

 

[Osmosis]

And the Lakers didn't play insane too?

How many times would the Lakers win shooting 11-24 from behind the arc, winning the FT advantage and AD and Bron dropping 60+ points between them both?

These type of games where both teams are performing above their usual standard are more crippling for the team that loses, because once the law of averages and fatigue hit as the series goes on these wins ultimately are the difference. They both took each other's best shot and Denver got the W.

There’s an obvious path for the Lakers to build upon this game, though. Their strategy in the first half was awful, their effort on the defensive glass was pitiful, and their guard defense (which has been solid all playoffs) was just pathetic for most of the night. I can see Denver replicating this offensive performance (especially at home) but the Lakers made it easy on them in the first half.

I also think Lebron and AD shouldn’t have any trouble getting quality looks in this series. The Grizzlies and Warriors had the horses to make them struggle offensively, Denver just doesn’t.

 

[T.he I.nformant]

There’s a a lot of cats that I think are candidates that will make a significant impact on the series but my picks for the x-factors out the gate for each team are Reaves and Bruce Brown.

Brown was huge during that first half and a big reason for Denver getting off to a great start and big lead. Brown had 16. Were they all in the first half?

Reaves was huge during the second half and a big reason for LA getting back into the game and almost pulling off a crazy comeback. Reaves had 23. 50% shooting. Five big threes. 8 assists.

 

[HoldThisL]

Cap. They gave up 37 to KCP and Bruce brown in a 6 point game. That’s what they fix.

Also Dennis had ‘solid defense’ yet Murray shot 60%. But I guess that’s repeatable for them tho

Also Reaves’ game was no surprise and not an outlier. This always figured to be a Reaves series he’s elite in P&R

To be fair Dennis started played great defense on Murray after he stopped going under the screen too.

 

[Nero Christ]

Thread is talking about what sustainable and what is unsustainable

One thing that is for sure unsustainable is Lakers keeping up that pace they played today. They were bottom 5 in transition defense for a reason

It seems like Lakers will struggle with preventing the Nuggets building up huge 20 point leads off of just fast break points

GS was actually building up leads against LA in multiple games...it's just they weren't able to sustain it. Seems Denver can

 

[jaydawg08]

To be fair Dennis started played great defense on Murray after he stopped going under the screen too.

This was by design from the coaching staff... Dennis was getting frustrated with the coaching staff at some point in the 1st half , before they finally allowed him to stop doing it

 

[EzekelRAGE]

This basically what Ham did after the half with Rui isnt it?

 

[Trav]

AD first one since Bean to put up dem #s

 

[ALonelyDad]

 

[nightwing2016]

Lakers will just switch defensive coverages. They’ll X AD off the screener, go zone, trap Jokic high and force AG to score etc.

You can try that but Minnesota tried that and it didn’t work. AG is good for a 20 point game and is shooting at 38 percent from 3.