2024 NBA Playoffs: West 1st Round: #2 Denver Nuggets vs #7 Los Angeles Lakers (DEN WINS 4-1)

[ChipotleWest]

Lakers beat every other team in the Western conference. They got unlucky with Nuggets first round.

You don't know that but even if you're right you're probably going to run into the Nuggets later anyway. So in the end same results.

In all honesty I'm not sure your could beat Thunder, Wolves, Mavs or Clippers.

[Special_Puppy]

Lakers beat every other team in the Western conference. They got unlucky with Nuggets first round.

You don't know that but even if you're right you're probably going to run into the Nuggets later anyway. So in the end same results.

In all honesty I'm not sure your could beat Thunder, Wolves, Mavs or Clippers.

Nuggets could easily lose in the second round this year! If they were on the other side of the bracket they might have never faced the Nuggets

[Mrakar]

Lakers beat every other team in the Western conference. They got unlucky with Nuggets first round.

They could have risk it and chose other side of the bracket. There was no luck involved. However i think they did the right thing by not doing it. 1st round was their best chance to win against Denver. They are playing for the championship, not for 2nd round.

[AK47MVP]

Lakers could have lost to Pelicans to avoid Nuggets but then they would have gotten Kings in play in which is bad matchup anyway. Time for Lebron to retire.

[Ryoga Hibiki]

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neve forget #clowns

[Special_Puppy]

Lakers could have lost to Pelicans to avoid Nuggets but then they would have gotten Kings in play in which is bad matchup anyway. Time for Lebron to retire.

Join the Sixers

[ChipotleWest]

Lakers beat every other team in the Western conference. They got unlucky with Nuggets first round.

You don't know that but even if you're right you're probably going to run into the Nuggets later anyway. So in the end same results.

In all honesty I'm not sure your could beat Thunder, Wolves, Mavs or Clippers.

Nuggets could easily lose in the second round this year! If they were on the other side of the bracket they might have never faced the Nuggets

So the Nuggets could lose to Wolves Thunder Mavs Clippers but Lakers couldn't possibly? Sure thing.

[lessthanjake]

Any team could lose to any team in the West. That goes for both the Nuggets and Lakers. But once you acknowledge that, then you have to acknowledge that the Nuggets are not some unbeatable juggernaut that you should risk not making the playoffs at all in order to avoid. And if you instead think that the Nuggets *are* an unbeatable juggernaut, then the Lakers would have to face them eventually anyways. Either way, purposely losing to the Pelicans would’ve been stupid. The only argument against this is some idea that the Nuggets are unbeatable for the Lakers but not unbeatable for other teams. I think that’s a tempting argument for people because the Nuggets have won so many games in a row against the Lakers, but I don’t really think it’s true. The Lakers have generally lost close games (in fact, despite being swept last year, the Lakers had the least-bad average margin of defeat of any of the Nuggets’ opponents last year), and there’s nothing specific about how the teams match up that sticks out as being idiosyncratically bad. In my view, the Nuggets aren’t unbeatable for the Lakers—they’re just better than the Lakers and happen to be on a win streak against them. Lakers have the talent to have a shot to beat the Nuggets, just like other teams in the West do. And you don’t risk missing the playoffs to avoid a team like that, especially when there’s a good chance you’d see them later anyways.

[GeorgeSears]

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neve forget #clowns

I've been looking for that first clip everywhere.

Here's the thing, I wouldn't hold it against someone to be dismissive of the Nuggets title chances in 2023 because they were swept in round 2 in 2021, and lost in 5 in 2022. Even when Murray came back, the team was still considered young and untested. The bubble run, at the time, was considered a product of the circumstances. The Nuggets fans, and the organization, knew how good this team was. That's why Tim Connelly built the TWolves roster to be able to compete with them because he knew what was coming when Murray came back.

The big issue I have is with people like Ramona Shelburne and Dave McMenamin, and to a lesser extent Lisa Salters. But those two in particular have the EASIEST job in the world. They live in LA and just cover the Lakers. Imagine the kind of connections you have to have in the ESPN to be this untalented, to not get laid off like everyone else was getting laid off, and just to cover one team in one city. Windhorst covers the Lakers extensively, but Windy's talented and actually breaks stories and provides good analysis. They have two people who have so much airtime covering one team and both suck at their jobs. What does that say about ESPN as a whole?

[ConSarnit]

Lakers beat every other team in the Western conference. They got unlucky with Nuggets first round.

You don't know that but even if you're right you're probably going to run into the Nuggets later anyway. So in the end same results.

In all honesty I'm not sure your could beat Thunder, Wolves, Mavs or Clippers.

The Lakers are just not a strong team. They are solid.

47-35: solid but not spectacular record. If your 2 best players play 70+ games each and you can't crack 50 wins you're probably not that great to begin with.

+0.6 net rating: worst of any playoff team

In his last 25 playoff games Lebron has scored 30+ points TWICE. He's still very good but he can't ramp it up enough anymore to carry the team.

[DorianRo]

good grief, your such a pathetic little man....

How is he wrong? If her last name wasn’t Buss she wouldn’t have the position. Nepotism is rarely good for a business.

but he didn't blame it on nepotism. He blamed it on her being a woman.

Both are a problem. What does a woman know about MEN’s NBA basketball? If she runs to run WNBA teams fine. But she shouldn’t be in the highest positions making important decision about a men’s basketball team.

User is being dealt with. No need for further responses.
- ccs

[Jadoogar]

Lakers got healthy seasons from AD (76 games) and Lebron (71 games). That's actually insane considering their age/injury history. Both played really well (considering Lebron's age) and the Lakers still only managed the 7th seed and about to lose in the first round again). So you can draw the following conclusions:
1. The supporting cast is not championship level
2. Lebron and AD are no longer good enough to make the difference for a subpar supporting cast

Considering the lack of assets and salary commitments, i don't see how the lakers get materially better. They could maybe make a desperate trade with their additional picks this summer. Or they try and rebuild (which is also hard, it's hard to gauged Lebron's trade value).

[ItsDanger]

Lakers are that TV show that has run out of plot lines.

[jus a fan]

Lakers beat every other team in the Western conference. They got unlucky with Nuggets first round.

Can we stop with this I keep hearing this from Laker fans Like they dominated the west except for Den hear are the H2H records this year

Vs OKC 3-1
vs Den 0-3
vs Minn 1-3
vs LAC 3-1
vs Dall 1-2
vs PHX 3-2
vs No 3-1
vs SAC 0-4
vs GS 1-3

they have not beat Den or Sac they have lost the season series vs Den, Minn, Dall, Sac and GS and won the series series vs OKC LAC PHX and NO.

If they would have lost to NO in Play In they had more of a chance of getting eliminated by either Sac or GS than getting to play a better matchup in OKC in 1st round.

lets try to acknowledge Lakers were not that good this year I dont think I can take another summer of Lakers were 2nd best team in west just unlucky they played Den.

Last season the Lakers were the lucky ones getting to the WCF

[scrabbarista]

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This is Chinese, not Japanese.

A loose translation:

"I also have my own reasons."

"I don't want to spend my whole life under someone's boots."

"Did you think I was just rotten rice?" (?)

"I waited three years. Three years, just for an opportunity."

(?)

"I wanted to prove to my family that I can achieve whatever I attempt."

Thanks for the practice! I only study traditional characters, not simplified, so I'm surprised I did so well.

[stepic]

Nuggets are just better. They're the best team in the league. You're always going to struggle when your 3rd option doesn't score, and the Nuggets 3rd and 4th options both have good games.

[whatisacenter]

How is he wrong? If her last name wasn’t Buss she wouldn’t have the position. Nepotism is rarely good for a business.

but he didn't blame it on nepotism. He blamed it on her being a woman.

Both are a problem. What does a woman know about MEN’s NBA basketball? If she runs to run WNBA teams fine. But she shouldn’t be in the highest positions making important decision about a men’s basketball team.

So you had a night the sleep on it and you are doubling down? You're more pathetic than I thought.

How many men coach women or own WNBA teams?

Just stop talking....it's not the 1950's anymore and you are out of your league.

[Marrrcuss]

The big problem for the Lakers is that the Nuggets' 3rd and 4th best players have answered the call. MPJ and AG have been incredible.

Thank you for the accurate, yet simple post.

The rest of this post is full of people dancing over their mental oppressor's limp body.

[whatisacenter]

LeBron's defense was pretty embarrassing last night. He lost AG in the half-court so many times it's not even funny.

dLo was totally embarrassing.

The rest of the team was about what you could expect.

[Bank Shot]

"The Lakers would have beat any other team in the West" feels like this year's "closest sweep ever."