Just about every member of the Los Angeles Lakers organization has had the same focus in recent days, and that it the team’s struggle to close out against the Denver Nuggets in crunch time. Dating back to the trade deadline of last season when the Lakers landed Rui Hachimura and D’Angelo Russell, among others, L.A. is 0-8 against the Nuggets, including a sweep in the Western Conference Finals.
Many of these games have followed nearly the exact same game script. That is, for the first three and a half quarters, the Lakers either look to be in control or are going toe to toe with the Nuggets. Regardless of whether the two teams are tied for much of the game or if the Lakers lead by double digits, what inevitably follows is the Nuggets going on one run to even out the score entering crunch time, and then going on a second run in the final minutes to put the Lakers away.
It has become such a routine that Hachimura, for one, is out of answers as to how the Lakers approach their matchups against Denver.
“I think the last two minutes of the game, we’re always there but those last two or three minutes, we let them score, defense, everything. Whatever they want to do. This happened again tonight,” Hachimura admitted.
“We tried a lot of different defenses on them but they’re a really good team. They can score, they play for each other, they always look for each other. Of course Jokic is always looking for his teammates and all that. We’re right there, but it’s just those last two or three minutes to close the game.”
Something like this would be frustrating for any team, but Hachimura is confident that the Lakers are not getting swept up in that frustration. He knows what the Nuggets have but is also aware of what the Lakers can be at their best.
“Not really. We’re still missing a couple guys and we’re still trying to figure out our team,” Hachimura said. “Their team is already set, they’ve been playing for six or seven years together. They finally got one last season, so it takes time.
“It takes time and I know we don’t have much time but we just got to keep building chemistry. We still have 20 games or something left and the injured guys are gonna come back. We just got to figure it out. Nobody is gonna help us, nobody is gonna fix it for us. We just got to figure it out and make it to the playoffs first. I think we’re gonna see them again, we just got to be ready for it.”
The Lakers have to be prepared to eventually face the Nuggets again if they want to make another deep postseason run. And if they do, their first step is figuring out how to slow the Nuggets down when the game tightens up in the final minutes.
Darvin Ham: Lakers need to make things tougher on Nuggets
Lakers head coach Darvin Ham talked about what went wrong for the Lakers down the stretch and all the things that the Nuggets do right that make them so difficult to beat in those final moments.
“They just make you pay,” Ham said. “They hit a bunch of tough, contested 2s. Obviously Jamal Murray got going, got to cooking, and then Jokic was able to throw in some real tough ones in the paint and some tough middys. We shifted and tried to make them see bodies, Gordon hits a 3, Justin Holiday hits a 3. They make plays. That’s what championship teams do. We just didn’t quite make enough of them. But hats off to them, they’re a hell of a ballclub. But we’ll get better from this, for sure.”
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