LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers are now staring directly at the prospect of a second straight sweep at the hands of the reigning NBA champion Denver Nuggets after falling behind 0-3 in their first round series on Thursday evening in Los Angeles. A season ago, it was in the conference finals when the Nuggets defeated the Lakers four straight times in route to the game's biggest stage, and it appears that a year later, not much at all has changed.
Oddly enough, both James and his Lakers co-star Anthony Davis have put up phenomenal numbers so far in the series vs the Nuggets this year. Instead, it has largely been the Lakers role players, including most notably D'Angelo Russell, Austin Reaves, and Rui Hachimura, who have let the team down, being thoroughly outperformed by the Nuggets' supporting cast of players like Michael Porter Jr. and Aaron Gordon.
One person who has been keeping a close eye on this year's playoffs with his newfound free time is Golden State Warriors power forward Draymond Green, who recently likened the Lakers vs Nuggets series to last week's boxing match between Ryan Garcia and Devin Haney, which Garcia won in surprising fashion.
“This is like a boxing match,” said Green, per The Draymond Green Show (via ClutchPoints on X, the social media platform formerly referred to as Twitter). “Devin Haney caught Ryan Garcia with a couple of shots, and in that moment, the fight ended. Ryan Garcia knew at that point, if Devin Haney gave me his best shot, it couldn't hurt me. And that's what the Los Angeles Lakers are going through right now with the Denver Nuggets, which is, you've given us your best shot, and it can't hurt us.”
To Green's point, the Lakers have raced out to double digit leads in each of the first three games before slowly crumbling down the stretch, like a burning building slowly but inevitably teetering toward collapse.
Another embarrassment for the Lakers
To lose to a team that's clearly superior to you is one thing, but to get swept twice in a row (not to mention a regular season sweep of the series as well by the Nuggets)–a prospect that the Lakers are staring straight in the face now–would be quite the embarrassment for a team that still features LeBron James and Anthony Davis playing at All-NBA levels.
Throughout the 11 straight losses they've suffered at the hands of the Nuggets, the Lakers have found new and inventive ways to lose, including falling thanks to a Jamal Murray buzzer beater in Game 2 of the series on Monday. However, the common thread has been the inability of the Lakers to consistently put together coherent stretches of basketball for more than a few possessions at a time, while the Nuggets approach the game with a much more methodical, controlled attack.
In any case, the Lakers will try to pick up their first win vs the Nuggets in well over a calendar year on Saturday night at 8:30 PM ET from the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.
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