The Los Angeles Lakers and Denver Nuggets have relocated to Crypto.com Arena for Games 3 and 4 of their first round postseason series. After two hard-fought battles in Denver, the Nuggets hold a 2-0 series lead despite the Lakers having big leads in both games. As has been the case with the Nuggets, L.A. has been unable to hold on in crunch time while Denver’s stars in Michael Porter Jr., Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray continue to show up.
Part of the reason the Nuggets have not slipped up in their last 10 outings against the Lakers is because they do not undermine them as an opponent. Oftentimes, when two teams that have a lopsided history or are on opposite ends of the bracket play one another, the better team can let games slip due to complacency. But Denver has always shown the utmost respect for the Lakers.
And Porter continued this trend at a Nuggets practice in L.A. prior to Thursday’s Game 3. He spoke about what the Lakers were able to accomplish in the first two games of the series despite not having a win to show for it, via DNVR Nuggets:
“They’re gonna show up really aggressive. They’ve shown that they can play with us on our home floor. They’ve been up big in both games. If I was on their team, I’m sure they have a lot of confidence just knowing that they were in the games both games, had big leads. So going back home, I’m sure they feel confident so we know we got go in there and be all business.”
The Lakers have absolutely hung tough with the Nuggets over the last 10 games, even though they are 0-10 in that span. And if Jokic, Porter, Murray and company weren’t careful, L.A. would certainly be capable of stealing a game or two. And that’s what they hope to do on Thursday in Game 3.
Porter and the Nuggets, meanwhile, look to avoid that complacency to win their 11th straight.
LeBron James: Lakers need to do better closing against Nuggets
Los Angeles suffered perhaps one of their worst losses in recent memory as they allowed Denver to come back from 20 points down and steal Game 2 on their home floor. It was a gut punch for the Lakers, who have now lost 10 consecutive games to the Nuggets and don’t seem any closer to getting over that hump.
LeBron James was visibly gassed in the second half after playing hard on both ends of the floor. James subbed himself out on a couple of times though he did empty out the tank in the fourth with some clutch shotmaking.
James himself admitted that he and the team need to be better about executing for all 48 minutes.
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