The Denver Nuggets entered the 2024 NBA playoffs as the defending champions. Despite Nikola Jokic leading the charge as a three-time MVP, no team really feared the Nuggets all that much. This was especially true when LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and the Los Angeles Lakers came to town as the 7-seed in the Western Conference.
After defeating the New Orleans Pelicans in the 7-seed vs. 8-seed play-in game, the Lakers prepared for their first-round battle with the Nuggets, the same team that swept them in the 2023 Western Conference Finals. Los Angeles was seeking revenge, and it appeared as if they were going to control this series against Denver based on how they would start out each game of this first-round series.
Ultimately, the Nuggets handled the Lakers in five games, but each of their four wins was not easy. The average margin of victory in this series for Denver was only 5.5 points per game, and Los Angeles led for a vast majority of the series, looking back on each minute of every game. Factoring this in, plus the Nuggets' overall fatigue heading into the playoffs, veteran shooting guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope claims that Denver shouldn't have won this series in April.
“You know how towards the playoffs guys get rest. I feel like that's where we spent most of our energy and time trying to get that first place, you know what I am saying,” Caldwell-Pope told Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green on a recent episode of The Draymond Green Show on The Volume. “Then we get to the playoffs… We had no gas. We felt like the Lakers should have beat us. We was down every game. At least 10, maybe even as high as 20 or something?
“It was a lot that went into that season. We wish we could have, you know…”
Once the Nuggets got past the Lakers, they quickly dropped the first two games of their Western Conference Semifinals series at home to the Minnesota Timberwolves. Facing an 0-2 hole, the Nuggets won three straight games to take a 3-2 series edge, just one win away from advancing to the conference finals. At that point, it seems like Denver ended up running out of gas, as the Timberwolves won two straight games to win the series in Game 7, knocking Caldwell-Pope and Co. out of the playoffs.
Lakers controlled Nuggets in playoffs
When you look back on the Lakers-Nuggets first-round playoff series from this past year, it is clear to see what Caldwell-Pope was alluding to when he said Los Angeles should've defeated Denver.
Take Game 1, for example. The Nuggets came out on top 114-103, but after they jumped out to a 6-4 lead over the Lakers, it was Los Angeles who controlled this game. In fact, the Lakers did not trail in this game again until 6:15 to go in the third quarter. From that point on, the Nuggets outscored the Lakers 42-32 to win the game.
Then in Game 2, the Nuggets jumped out to an early first quarter lead until the Lakers took control through the third quarter and early on into the fourth. Denver outscored Los Angeles 57-40 in the second half to spark a 20-point comeback. The other two victories the Nuggets claimed over the Lakers in this series followed a similar pattern of Los Angeles controlling the pace of play throughout the first half, only for Denver to turn things around and win.
This series was there for the taking, and the Lakers had numerous opportunities to seize control of multiple games. Unfortunately for them, the Nuggets were able to outlast them in this first-round series, only to run out of gas and be unable to have a chance at defending their title.
Now, Caldwell-Pope is a member of the Orlando Magic, a young team on the rise in the Eastern Conference. After winning titles with the Lakers and Nuggets, the veteran shooting guard enters a new chapter in his career where he will look to be the veteran voice of reason in a team's title pursuit.
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