The Denver Nuggets defeated the Los Angeles Lakers 132-126 in Game 1 of their Western Conference Finals series on Tuesday. With the Nuggets looking to take a 2-0 series lead before hitting the road for Los Angeles, head coach Michael Malone spoke with the media at practice ahead of Thursday night's Game 2 and had a bold take on what is being said about the Lakers in this series.
“There's this discussion… even though the Lakers lost… they think they've got something,” Malone said, via NBA on ESPN. “I'll bet you every red penny I have that Darvin Ham would rather be up 1-0 than down 0-1.”
Malone is always a very straight-to-the-point coach and is never afraid to voice his opinion on certain matters. As he stated, there has been a lot of conversation since Game 1 that the Lakers “won” Game 1 since they came back within a possession from a 21-point deficit. Maybe Los Angeles has found a greater sense of confidence or figured out a new way to attack moving forward in this series, but the fact of the matter is that the Nuggets lead this series 1-0.
Nobody has wanted to give Denver credit for what they have achieved despite being the 1-seed in the conference almost all year. It should not come as a shock to see Malone or anyone else within the Nuggets organization frustrated with the narratives that the Lakers are in a good spot in this series.
At the same time though, the Nuggets will not really let this bother them, as they are focused on taking care of business in Game 2 in order to take a 2-0 series lead.
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