Will the Lakers vs. Nuggets be more competitive than last season? | SportsCenter

Dave McMenamin joins SportsCenter to preview the Los Angeles Lakers’ matchup with the Denver Nuggets in the First Round of the 2024 NBA Playoffs.

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all right back to the NBA play in match
up between the Lakers and the Pelicans
winner gets the seven seed eight seed
gets or the loser gets another
shot but down the stretch is where this
game was determined minute 33 to go was
tied at 99 to Austin Reeves set up
Anthony Davis on the Alley and then
Reeves D’Angelo Russell in the corner
that was your ball game Lakers win it
110 106 they are seven seed and they
would take on the defending Champion
dver nuggets in the first round uh our
Dave MC menman watched it all down there
in New Orleans big win for LA but Dave I
don’t know if any team goes around you
know like woohoo we’re number seven uh
but give me the mood the at the Smoothie
Center in the locker room after the
victory well LeBron James addressed his
teammates in that locker room and said
hey man it’s not many times I’m going to
shoot six for 20 from the field we
wouldn’t have won this game without all
of your contribution so was the type of
win where they every every player on the
Lakers roster walks out of the Arena
tonight feeling good about their
contributions and now they turn their
attention to Denver obviously the
nuggets have been on this team’s mind
since last May when they got swept out
of the Western Conference finals and the
Lakers haven’t beat them since they lost
every game in the regular season matchup
to this team but I was talking to
Anthony Davis about it and obviously
there was a lot of talk going into
tonight whether the Lakers should try to
tank this game to avoid the nuggets in
the first round he said he learned a
message from Monty Williams early on in
his career which was if you mess with
the game it’s going to turn around and
mess with you so Anthony Davis never had
the mentality that the Lakers should try
to avoid Denver by not playing their
best tonight they get that win they’re
going to get a couple days of rest
Anthony Davis says he’s positive he will
be 100% with his back come Saturday and
LeBron said if the Nuggets play their
perfect game and we play our perfect
game it’s just going to come down to a
couple possessions let’s see who can
execute better when it comes down to
that yeah but they’re going to have to
do it four times in seven of those games
so we would expect the Lakers and their
players to say all the right things even
after getting dusted eight straight
times you’ve been aom enough to like how
much of this do I believe in what
they’re saying because you you you you
know them in body language and all the
rest that comes with
it yeah I mean I think the question is
is it unreasonable to expect LeBron at
39 years old and you’re 21 to be able to
make plays down the stretch against the
guy who’s probably going to win MVP for
the third time this year who’s smack in
the middle of his Prime in Nicole yic
and like LeBron’s been superhuman we’ve
seen it but even tonight we saw some
slippage late in the game and Austin
Reef stepped up and made some plays
D’Angelo Russell stepped up made a big
three can those guys make those same
type of plays against the defending
champs when LeBron can’t carry it all
because that’s a juggernaut of a nuggets
team that’s going to what what it’s
going to come down to thus s we saw the
role players last year here for Denver
the Aaron Gordon the cavius calwell
popes uh a superstar role player and
Jamaal Murray make all the plays that
the Lakers didn’t we’ll see if a year
seasoning will put the Lakers in a
better position to make it a competitive
series the question now becomes I
thought I was asking the questions but I
get it we know what the roles are here
it’s fantastic uh thank you Dave MC
benan and we’ll pick up with your your
work in
Denver thanks John
Anderson all right so let’s go back and
relive the season that was between the
Lakers and the Nuggets October 24th last
fall nuggets raised that
Banner as the defending Champions you
get the Rings Nia yic uh he would give
the Lakers some problems right 29 Points
13 rebounds 11 assists nuggets would
start off their title defense with a
12-point win over La at the time John
they’re six straight so feeling pretty
good anytime the purp and go lines up
against them at the other end yeah this
is one of those things it’s like hey
lock them up tomorrow we’ll play him
again February 8th night the Lakers
would unveil the Kobe Bryant statue at
their home arena the Nuggets would steal
the show again joic he usually does 24
points 14 rebounds he didn’t even go
cuckoo for Coco bir he just played like
he did Jamal Murray lead the way 29
Points 11 assists for Denver and the
Nuggets take the second matchup of the
Season 114 106 all right so March 2nd
though LeBron was nine point shy of
40,000 for his career Milestone and he
was going to do it against the
Nuggets James against Porter Drive spins
gets
inside it’s good it’s 40,000 for LeBron
James as the legend of LeBron continues
to
grow and so the Lakers Stars well
LeBron’s like we going to win and
Nuggets like no he ain’t neither never
35 points 10 boards seven assists from
The Joker and the Nuggets complete the
season sweep of the Lakers 124 114 so
three games three wins for Denver but
here’s the deal if you take a look at
the rosters okay they both ranked top
five in the NBA in winning percentage
since February 1st and putting together
some of the best offense in the entire
league believe it or not the Lakers
actually had a better offensive
efficiency and field goal percentage
during that stretch than the defending
Champions I
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is