Posted: Tue Sep 15, 2020 8:12 pm Post subject: WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS 2020 DISCUSSION - Lakers vs Nuggets
Game 1: 9/18 Friday on TNT
Game 2: 9/20 Sunday on TNT
Game 3: 9/22 Tuesday on TNT
Game 4: 9/24 Thursday on TNT
Game 5: TBD
Game 6: TBD
Game 7: TBD
Notes:
1) Regular season - the Lakers won the head to head matchup 3-1:
- Lakers 105 Nuggets 96
- Nuggets 128 Lakers 104
- Lakers 120 Nuggets 116
- Lakers 124 Nuggets 121
2) Lakers are 6-0 in a Playoff series vs Denver.
3) Nuggets coach Mike Malone was an assistant coach for LeBron for 5 years in Cleveland.
Thoughts about Lakers/Nuggets matchup? _________________ Tacos
Last edited by Lonzo-Lite on Tue Sep 15, 2020 8:40 pm; edited 2 times in total
Lakers in a generous 5. _________________ On Lakersground, a concern troll is someone who is a fan of another team, but pretends to be a Lakers fan with "concerns".
My little girls refer to them as the Chicken Nuggets. đ„ _________________ âYou have to dance beautifully in the box that you are comfortable dancing in.â - Kobe Bryant
Theyâre resilient, they provide lots of spacing thanks to Jokic surrounded by shooters, they can run, and they play good team defense that they contested 39 out of 45 Clipperâs shots, Nuggets will also be on a big momentum high, while Lakers havenât played a game for a week _________________ Tacos
We've got to respect the Nuggets. They got to the WCF for a reason, and we are all laughing at the clippers now but the fact is they are/were still a powerhouse and Denver came back in down 3-1.
Joined: 10 Jul 2009 Posts: 12161 Location: Bay Area
Posted: Tue Sep 15, 2020 8:23 pm Post subject:
They are more resilient than some on this forum may want to give them credit. Good depth, veteran experience, solid coaching, a genuine superstar in Jokic, and Murray, who may or may not be an elite second option but is certainly playing like a 1B right now. They can go on some crazy runs.
Really thankful we don't actually have to go to Denver at all. Might be all the homecourt advantage we need.
If we play elite defense from the get-go, Lakers in 5. If we drop game 1, Lakers in 6.
I can see beating them. The reason is because we have genuine bigs who can actually guard Jokic. They will not stop him but switch McGee and Howard on him 15 min each +10 min with AD is formula for success. He will still score but not like this. Flippers didnt have anyone to contain him.
Murray I am afraid of him. But still we have some good defenders. He will score 25-30 anyway.
Lakers in 6.
Decided to give some numbers to this season's Lakers v Nuggets games to give perspective. In sum, 1 game in LA, 2 in Denver, 1 in the bubble. Of note, the game in LA was the only blowout - all Nuggets - as Lakers did not have LBJ. Rest of the games the Lakers won.
I basically summarized performances for what I feel are key players: For the Lakers, AD, LBJ, and McGee/Howard. I bring this up because of "recency bias", the recent smaller ball style of play vs the Rockets makes us forget how effective our bigs can be in the right matchups, so I did bring our Centers into the discussion (note there was not a single game where, combined, their minutes were less than 30). For the Nuggets I focused on Jokic and Murray. Note for AD, Mcgee, and Howard I just sum up points and rebounds. LBJ and Jokic get points, rebounds, assists. Murray just points. For Mcgee and Howard I list minutes played:
1. Lakers won 105-96 at Denver
AD 25-10
LBJ 25-6-9
McGee 4-6 (14 minutes)
Howard 13-6 (19 minutes)
Jokic 13-5-5
Murray 22
2. Denver won 128-104 in Los Angeles
NO LBJ
AD 32-11
McGee 7-5 (18 minutes)
Howard 8-7 (17 minutes)
Jokic 18-6-5
Murray 6
[How they win? Beasley, Plumlee, Barton, Harris all scored 10+ points]
3. Lakers won in OT at Denver 120-116
AD 33-10
LBJ 32-12-14
McGee 4-3 (13)
Howard 14-11 (30)
Jokic 22-11-6
Murray 32
4. Lakers "won" in the Bubble 124-121
AD 27-6
LBJ 29-1-12
McGee 4-5 (16 minutes)
Howard 8-5 (14 minutes)
Jokic 12-1-4
Murray 14
[this game was wierd. Denver pulled Murray and Jokic after 3 quarters, where game was tied 88-88. Lakers played AD and LBJ much more and barely won. Lakers were not playing well after coming back initially so will put this one up in the "what was that?" column]
Basically the Laker combined "Center" gets about 15 points and 10 rebounds vs Denver. Jokic has, for most part, "struggled" versus the Lakers. I will note Jokic's worst game(s) tended to be the first two, when he was notably out of shape to start the season. Watching him tonight he looked alot quicker, especially on D.
In sum, the Lakers have tools at their disposal that Denver typically has struggled with. AD tends to do his thing, as does LBJ. Meanwhile, Jokic has had some issues with the Laker center core. These games have typically come down to whether Denver's supporting cast fills in the gap, and what else (in addition to LBJ and AD) Lakers supporting cast brings.
Denver is an interesting matchup because they do have solid talent on the team and a big you need to account for; with that said I do believe the Lakers have the overall edge (objectively) from a pure matchup standpoint. They really have no one (and it has shown) who can stop LBJ or AD, but Lakers have been able to slow their big 2 more often then Denver has.
I will say this - Denver is playing with alot more confidence, believing they cannot be beat in a series, so one loss does not bother them. The Lakers will have to come out and play aggressive D - I think if they do, they take this series. If they goof around (eg like Game 1 vs Rockets) - Denver will come on like a tidal wave.
Posted: Tue Sep 15, 2020 8:26 pm Post subject: Re: 2020 WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS DISCUSSION - Lakers vs Nuggets
Lonzo-Lite wrote:
Game 1: 9/18 Friday on TNT
Game 2: 9/20 Sunday on TNT
Game 3: 9/22 Tuesday on TNT
Game 4: 9/24 Thursday on TNT
Game 5: TBD
Game 6: TBD
Game 7: TBD
Notes:
1) Regular season - the Lakers won the head to head matchup 2-1:
- Nuggets 128 Lakers 104
- Lakers 120 Nuggets 116
- Lakers 124 Nuggets 121
Lakers won 105-96 @ DEN on 12/3/19. The 120-116 gm was the last game before the ASB which I expected them to halfass. It was one of their better games of the season. Guy above beat me to it, but the L we had against them was sans LBJ and it was during the 4 gm losing streak we had before Xmas. _________________ GOAT MAGIC REEL SEDALE TRIBUTE EDDIE DONX!
Last edited by non-player zealot on Tue Sep 15, 2020 8:29 pm; edited 2 times in total
Joined: 24 Dec 2007 Posts: 35812 Location: Santa Clarita, CA (Hell) ->>>>>Ithaca, NY -â„â„â„â„â„Berkeley, CA
Posted: Tue Sep 15, 2020 8:27 pm Post subject:
Nuggets will be worn down from two seven game series. Lakers stomp in four. _________________ Damian Lillard shatters Dwight Coward's championship dreams:
They are more resilient than some on this forum may want to give them credit. Good depth, veteran experience, solid coaching, a genuine superstar in Jokic, and Murray, who may or may not be an elite second option but is certainly playing like a 1B right now. They can go on some crazy runs.
Really thankful we don't actually have to go to Denver at all. Might be all the homecourt advantage we need.
If we play elite defense from the get-go, Lakers in 5. If we drop game 1, Lakers in 6.
Agree with you re D. If Lakers lock down, they get the series. I honestly cannot call the number of games, however. Would not surprise me if it went 7.
BTW, Does anyone doubt that if Clippers had LBJ and AD instead of KL and PG 13 they would have won tonight? I just sit back in amazement at how lucky we are to have a guy like LBJ who can just turn up another gear when needed, and a guy like AD whose defense can be infectious to others.
Yeah fellas - this is a GREAT matchup for us. DEN is a really good team but relative to the Clippers, these matchups are WAY WAY better for us.
Again go back and look at the bubble games, DEN was intentionally tanking games so they could draw the Clips in the bracket instead of us. They know they don't matchup well.
Especially without HCA being a factor for DEN oh man, Lebron and AD should just go ham and we have plenty of good bigs to put on Jokic.
Jamal Murray will be a problem, might need to swarm him like we did Lillard.
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