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Denver Nuggets are on the road to the franchise maiden NBA final and first-ever NBA ring.

But our next opponent is an overwhelming favorite to win the 2020 title, Los Angeles Lakers, lead by all-time TOP2 player LeBron James and all-star starter Anthony Davis.

I gotta start catching more Nuggets games. Your team is fun as hell to watch.

I am going to say it now, I think we win this in 5 games unless we decide to just give them game 1 like we did with the Clippers, than it is going to be 6 games.

They proved they can beat the Clippers, they are capable of beating the Lakers or any team in the NBA. The Nuggets have a chance and as they improve with experience, they are going to go far, if not this season then from here out.

Nuggets will defeat the Lakers in 6 games. They're the better and more talented team!

It is funny to me how many are predicting Davis to walk all over Jokic in this series, they only really faced each other 20 minutes and the head to head stats show that Jokic pretty clearly won the matchup. Jokic usually has more trouble with Howard than he does Davis, but playoff jokic is another beast, and i doubt Howard in his current condition can do a lot against playoff Jokic.

Davis is likely going to be covered by Millsap and Grant, the last 10 games or so give me hope that Malone will not overplay Millsap, because we all know Millsap can no longer keep up with Davis. It is okay though, 18 mpg of physical defense from Millsap and 30 minutes of Grant and I think we are just fine. In limited minutes against Davis over the last 3 years he has kept him under 40% shooting while Millsap has allowed 66% shooting. For reference Jokic allows Davis 33% shooting over the last 3 years.

We all know Lebron is going to get his, but I think with our system we will force him into more long 2s which is a huge win for us. I think a rotation of MPJ (for all the crap he catches he is not nearly as bad as people think on defense), Grant, Craig, and Millsap for a couple of minutes will keep the looks changing for Lebron and keep his production manageable.

Oddly the one that scares me is playoff Rondo, he turns it up about 5 notches in the playoffs and becomes a different animal. Part of the problems he brings is that he knows how to get hot shooters the ball in the their spots, so we are going to depend heavily on our guards defending the rights guys on the 3rd rotations.

I would like to see Dozier and Bol both get a few minutes in game 1 and 2, their hustle and length gave the Lakers fits in the bubble game and we can use their skills in this series.

In order for the Nuggets to have a chance against the Lakers, Jokic have to play much better against them now than he was in the regular season, Howard physicality gave a lot of the problems to Jokic this season, thats why he has to draw him out of the paint, pick and roll and pop, hit the threes and force Vogel to take Howard out, Jokic can abuse McGee back to the basket , I am pretty sure of that, I think he could handle Davis too if he's more decisive on the offense , because he's much bigger than Davis , also Denver have to take care of defensive rebounding and when Howard and Davis are playing together thats the problem for the Nuggets , maybe we will see Jokic and Plumlee together for some stretches in this series , Lakers are favorites here, but the Nuggets have the momentum too, I could see an easy series for the Lakers but on the other hand I wouldn't be surprise if this go to the long distance either.

Mickey8 wrote:In order for the Nuggets to have a chance against the Lakers, Jokic have to play much better against them now than he was in the regular season, Howard physicality gave a lot of the problems to Jokic this season, thats why he has to draw him out of the paint, pick and roll and pop, hit the threes and force Vogel to take Howard out, Jokic can abuse McGee back to the basket , I am pretty sure of that, I think he could handle Davis too if he's more decisive on the offense , because he's much bigger than Davis , also Denver have to take care of defensive rebounding and when Howard and Davis are playing together thats the problem for the Nuggets , maybe we will see Jokic and Plumlee together for some stretches in this series , Lakers are favorites here, but the Nuggets have the momentum too, I could see an easy series for the Lakers but on the other hand I wouldn't be surprise if this go to the long distance either.

Have you EVER noticed Jokic ups his game in the playoffs, becomes more DOMINANT ?? Have you watched any of his playoff games this year ??? Some of your statements make me wonder, dude !

Chill out dude, those are my observation from the regular season, Lakers have much better front court than the Clippers and it could represent the problem for Jokic, he has to step it up and have a great games against them , its time to show that he's the best center in the league by shutting them down.

I'm not worried about Jokic or Murray. They'll come through. What we need is consistent contributions from our bench.

Is there any word on Barton? What is going on with that situation? He goes from day-to-day to out of bubble and out indefinitely, and I haven't seen any clear explanation of what's actually wrong with him.

Listened to a TC interview, he said Barton is on his own time-table, he plays when he is ready. Sounds like he was avoiding the question.

It sounds to me like Barton decided he did not want to be in the bubble at all, he was due back at anytime when he left the bubble and he supposedly is working with a trainer in Miami this entire time, so he should be ready. The way the team and altitude radio have sounded they would rather not talk about it.

The Rebel wrote:It sounds to me like Barton decided he did not want to be in the bubble at all, he was due back at anytime when he left the bubble and he supposedly is working with a trainer in Miami this entire time, so he should be ready. The way the team and altitude radio have sounded they would rather not talk about it.

Seems like Barton is writing his own ticket out of DEN, at least that's my attitude towards it. When his team needs him the most, he's Missing In Action !

skywalker33 wrote:

The Rebel wrote:It sounds to me like Barton decided he did not want to be in the bubble at all, he was due back at anytime when he left the bubble and he supposedly is working with a trainer in Miami this entire time, so he should be ready. The way the team and altitude radio have sounded they would rather not talk about it.

Seems like Barton is writing his own ticket out of DEN, at least that's my attitude towards it. When his team needs him the most, he's Missing In Action !

I agree, if he could not handle the bubble than that is on him, everybody in there has made a pretty big sacrifice to be there, and a supposed team/lockeroom leader should not have been late and then disappeared when he should have been available to play.

Big series, not only for both teams but also for the NBA itself,....and it's RATINGS ! Now BOS ( the other half of the NBA's dream matchup, although MIA does have the LBJ connection) really isn't helping the NBA's marketing plan whatsoever. Which brings in my real real. Mano-a-mano I feel we have our strongest chance to win a championship this year. However, with as bad as the refs have been in the bubble so far, I could easily see yet ANOTHER bad set of calls, conviently swaying toward the NBA flagship Lakers. I just hope we're given a chance to play mano-a-mano, not mano-a-mano+refs.

The Rebel wrote:

skywalker33 wrote:

The Rebel wrote:It sounds to me like Barton decided he did not want to be in the bubble at all, he was due back at anytime when he left the bubble and he supposedly is working with a trainer in Miami this entire time, so he should be ready. The way the team and altitude radio have sounded they would rather not talk about it.

Seems like Barton is writing his own ticket out of DEN, at least that's my attitude towards it. When his team needs him the most, he's Missing In Action !

I agree, if he could not handle the bubble than that is on him, everybody in there has made a pretty big sacrifice to be there, and a supposed team/lockeroom leader should not have been late and then disappeared when he should have been available to play.

Should be there or not - it's a personal choice. But the Nuggets are learning that Barton, no matter who likes him or not, no matter how good he is or isn't, the Nuggets are learning that while Barton might be nice to have - they don't need him.

Well, GHarris and MPJ need to step up this second half, everyone else is doing fine, a little more help would go far in this game.

NuggetsWY wrote:

The Rebel wrote:

skywalker33 wrote:Seems like Barton is writing his own ticket out of DEN, at least that's my attitude towards it. When his team needs him the most, he's Missing In Action !

I agree, if he could not handle the bubble than that is on him, everybody in there has made a pretty big sacrifice to be there, and a supposed team/lockeroom leader should not have been late and then disappeared when he should have been available to play.

Should be there or not - it's a personal choice. But the Nuggets are learning that Barton, no matter who likes him or not, no matter how good he is or isn't, the Nuggets are learning that while Barton might be nice to have - they don't need him.

I agree it is a choice, but a leader does not say they will do something, show up late, talk about wanting to play and getting close to the end of rehab, than bail with no explanation. A leader would be totally upfront about what they were doing, they wouldn't be texting TV announcers that they could be back in a few days and disappear. They don't want to do something, they state it clearly. As someone outside of the situation but following it as closely as a fan can, the whole thing just comes off as a guy I don't want leading the lockerroom.