Denver Nuggets coach Michael Malone thought his team did a great job of neutralizing Los Angeles Lakers guard D'Angelo Russell in Tuesday night's Game 1 win — and he took a subtle shot at the 27-year-old after the game.
“I felt we did a great job on D'Angelo Russell,” Malone said afterwards, according to ClutchPoints' Michael Corvo. “So great that he wasn’t even in the game much in the second half.”
Russell was admittedly not great on Tuesday night, scoring just eight points without a rebound and three assists over 26 minutes on the court. He shot just 4-for-11, including 0-for-3 from the three-point line as the Lakers lost their first Game 1 of the 2023 NBA Playoffs.
The Nuggets were the better team on Tuesday, leading by as many as 21 points before Los Angeles made a late-game comeback. But it wasn't enough to knock off the No. 1 seed at Ball Arena, a place where Denver is 7-0 in these playoffs.
“I'd rather clean things up after a win in the Western Conference Finals than after a loss, so I will take it,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone continued. “But much work to do.”
The teams scored a combined 258 points in the contest, the highest-scoring conference finals game that didn't go to overtime since 1987, when the Detroit Pistons beat the Boston Celtics 145-119, per Associated Press.
Game 2 is set for Thursday night at Ball Arena in Denver, and the Los Angeles Lakers will need a better effort from tip-off if they hope to avoid falling into a 2-0 hole against the Western Conference's best team.
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