The Los Angeles Lakers suffered a disappointing defeat on Tuesday, falling to the Denver Nuggets in Game 3 of their Western Conference Finals series. After the game, Anthony Davis was asked about his thoughts on the series, to which his response was eerily similar to that of Paul George of the Los Angeles Clippers.

In his postgame interview, Davis expressed his belief about how LA is still in control of the series — something that George himself said after the Nuggets tied the series 3-3 in the West Semis:

We all know how the Nuggets-Clippers series turned out, and needless to say, George was mistaken with his earlier claim. If anything, the Clippers' performance in Game 7 proved that they were clearly not in control of that series.

Could this be a matter of history repeating itself for the Lakers? The Nuggets have already come back twice from 3-1 down in the 2020 playoffs, and now behind 2-1 against the Purple and Gold, they are indeed very much capable of mounting another improbable upset.

Anthony Davis scored at will against Denver on Tuesday, finishing with 27 points on 9-of-17 shooting. However, the talking point here is how AD logged a career-low two boards. All in all, the Lakers collected just 25 rebounds throughout the contest, as compared to Denver's 44. There's no denying that the huge disparity on the boards — among other things — was one of the main factors that led to LA's downfall in Game 3.

Game 4 of the West Finals is scheduled for Thursday, and a win for the Lakers should prove Davis' claim that his team is still in control of the series. However, that is certainly easier said than done against the tough-minded Denver squad led by head coach Michael Malone.

For what it's worth though, the Lakers have said before that they won't be underestimating the Nuggets.