The third game after 0-2 is always a "must-win" game, even for the Denver comebacks Kings 0-3 vs arguably league-best team would be too much.
Lakers strategy is clear in this series, and they will not change anything. In Denver's case, the only obvious change which should be made without thinking is to upgrade Porter minutes from under 25 to over 30 (if not over 35). Scoring is not the only reason why we need him more, it is rebounding too (in game#2 in which he played only 19 minutes Lakers outrebounded Nuggets 44-31). We talked about how this is tough series for Jokic and Murray, but as I said before, the Lakers are actually the worst matchup for Gary Harris, because they have no player where Harris defensive skills will overshine his offensive problems from the past two seasons. But I'm not sure what should be done about that, because he is still our most useful backcourt defender there, Morris is more efficient in the offense, but his defense is questionable even vs opponents 2nd unit. Dozier can energize the team in a good way, but his efficiency is bad in general (not good TS%, too many TO's). Maybe is Barton the solution, if he is ready, but I'm afraid of his eventual negative influence on Murray and Porter offense.
The other bad thing which we should to fix if we want to win this game and maybe even the whole series is poor 1st half performances time after time. Everybody talking how good is Denver vs both Los Angeles (super)teams in 2nd half and at the end of these games, but let's talk about what is wrong with Denver's games before halftime. In the last 6 games, results on halftime were always on the opponent's favor (50:60, 59:70, 54:56, 47:63, 44:56, 40:48), in most cases in double-digit. We won 3 of these games (almost 4), but this must stop. In half out of 16 playoff games so far in 2020 opponents have a double-digit lead on halftime!? Looking at the other conference final participants, the Lakers and Celtics didn't face so far any 10+ halftime deficit in this playoff, Miami only twice!
Denver is the best so far in "DO OR DIE" games this playoff, and despite technically this is not an elimination game, in reality, it is... so let's hope Denver will do it again!
