2023 Western Conference Finals | (1) Denver Nuggets VS (7) Los Angeles Lakers (DEN leads 3-0)

[IG2]

Lakers need to load manage LeBron next season. Dude just has too much mileage on him.

People do realize that LeBron pre-injury and post-injury are essentially 2 different players? I'm sure he's tired, but that's not the biggest reason why he went from 30 ppg through March to 23 ppg in the playoffs.

[Medbrat]

At 3-0 the Lakers have them right where they want them.
Maaaan, I'm gonna watch ESPN so hard, the meltdown thereust be absolutely epic.

[socal74]

Lakers treated the Warriors series as the chip and had nothing left for the Nugs

i gotta believe we would've at least taken a couple of games against the Nugts if not made it a 7.

Nah man your team is trash. You guys would probably get blown out every single game

[wraith985]

Lakers treated the Warriors series as the chip and had nothing left for the Nugs

i gotta believe we would've at least taken a couple of games against the Nugts if not made it a 7.

dubs probably wouldn't have taken the series, but they would have at least run jokic ragged and forced murray to play more defense. much harder to beat the nuggs in a traditional/classic framework when jokic breaks that mold clean in half.

[durden_tyler]

Can’t wait for the Lakers postmortem thread. Basically want to see how they keep the key role players there.

Make no mistake about it, they did a good job post trade deadline and all those deals. Those were moves to make them contenders for a title and they did a nice job, it’s only that Nuggets are way better.

[Mickey8]

I can't wait for Monday morning to see lamestream media lamenting over dead Lakers carcass

[CobraCommander]

Again that MVP vote is getting worst and worst and worst every day. And Embiid didn't help with his performances in game 6 and game 7. You best believe if Denver wins the title that the first thing Malone brings up is the MVP vote.

Embiid calling Jokic the real mvp

[osiyal]

The difference between the Warriors and the Nuggets is that Warriors second star and role players stepped up while those of the Warriors did not.

[drekwins]

Jokic is going to end up a top 10 player all time somewhere close to Olajuwon. In a wings era, that is remarkable. What a talent.

It’s going to move from the LBJ/Curry era to the Jokic/Giannis era ——- unless Jimmy upsets the apple cart

I'm not certain that Giannis is going to get there. As far as impact on the game, he really is a lot like Shaq (in terms of dominance). But, when Shaq played, 3's were so much less frequent. In other words, the fact that he only shot 2's and wasn't good at FT shooter had less of an impact. Now, guys are so efficient and PPS are up. Not to mention, in the playoffs, where defenses tighten up and force jump shots/FTs, I see him consistently struggling in crunch time against the best teams. I'm not sure that he has the opportunity/window that people think he does.

I really think that Milwaukee needs to add a perimeter star with him. But, their draft capital is terrible. Thus, I really think Giannis is going to get moved. But, when he is, it's going to absolutely destroy the roster of the team he goes to. They're going to have to give up everything. Thus, I really think that the perfect match for Giannis is Miami. Riley and Spo are the perfect duo to identify what he needs around him, find a way to get it and to coach the team the right way.

If it's any other team, I'm not sure that they get it done.

[Tracymcgoaty]

His foot is toast.

I'd seriously sit him. We're not coming back this series. Get healthy. Get most of the guys back.

Somehow miraculously get HAm off this team and get Nurse.

Better seeding next year and healthy i like our chances.

How many coaches can there be before people realize James is old and its not the coach.

Because Ham is terrible? Lebron is old and m not expecting him to lead. But he's not healthy.

Ham this series has been god awful. Give me Nurse and we'd not have seen Lebron on the bench when Jokic is out. We wouldn't have seen AD out when Jokic came back in 4Q being guarded by Rui without AD roaming the paint. We wouldn't see DLO Vando lineup who are net negatives every game this series.

t's a game of adjustments and Ham did **** all on that department. He's too worried about offending ones feelings instead of actually making the right adjustments.

[BayArea408415]

One more game to end the stupid goat talk.

But come on, I didn't even expect it would be this quick.

No more talking needed:

LeBron > Michael

The results of this series are immaterial

You made a typo.

Michael > > > > > > LeFlop.

[Goomba3666]

"Lebrons near triple double wasn't enough against Denver".

Meanwhile Reeves dropped 23/5/7
AD with 28/18

There should be a way to gamble on sports headlines.

[damanick10]

ESPN is going HAM on Monday knowing they won't have much longer

[inquisitive]

Will the media talk more about how Denver won the game or will they talk more about what the Lakers should've done to win this game?

[durden_tyler]

Denver will steamroll Miami, talent gap is even bigger than this series

In the end the real finals was vs Phoenix

We keep waiting for the classic steam roll on Miami, hasn't happened yet. Spo has been successful and containing Jokic in the past with schemes during the regular season, don't be surprised if he doesn't fill the box score as pretty as he has been in the last three series.

Joker doesn't care if he score 1 point as long as he makes the right basketball plays to get the win.

This. Just a very very smart player.

[iggymcfrack]

Lakers treated the Warriors series as the chip and had nothing left for the Nugs

i gotta believe we would've at least taken a couple of games against the Nugts if not made it a 7.

Nah, they actually played great in Game 1. Nuggets just went nuclear with their shooting. As the series has worn on, the Lakers are having trouble keeping up with the Nuggets’ pace. Heavy minutes for the stars, many in altitude against a team looking to fastbreak every single opportunity just wore them down.

[Teen Girl Squad]

Lakers need to load manage LeBron next season. Dude just has too much mileage on him.

People do realize that LeBron pre-injury and post-injury are essentially 2 different players? I'm sure he's tired, but that's not the biggest reason why he went from 30 ppg through March to 23 ppg in the playoffs.

Its both. People are letting out a lot of sports hate but once things cool off and time passes people will realize that Bron doing even this at 38 on a bum ankle is amazing.

[osiyal]

I picked the Nuggets in 6 because they just looked like the better team, but this series will probably be shorter than I expected.

[Medbrat]

I owe Denver an apology. I gladly eat crow on this one. I predicted the Nuggets wouldn’t win a road game this series and I was wrong. Lakers have been fantastic at home and I didn’t think Jamal Murray had it in him. I was wrong. Congrats Denver fans, that’s an impressive road win. Don’t blow it lol.

You've been crazy wrong the entire series and you've done it on purpose.

[Walton the GOAT]

GOAT talks over. Lebron is a top 10'er. Thats it. Hes not GOAT quality

He's 38, my guy. MJ was already retired for the first time at this point