The Grizzlies couldn’t do it, too young and inexperienced in the big games to thwart two players who are healthy and at the top of their games. EDGE: EVEN SERIES PREDICTIONĪs hard as it is to imagine anyone slowing Jokic, it’s even harder to imagine anyone contending effectively with James and Davis. The Nuggets also are 6-0 at home during the playoffs, making the most of their mile-high altitude advantage in Denver. The Lakers are on a nine-game winning streak at home, including 6-0 in the playoffs. The Lakers have won all seven, including in five games in ’20. The Lakers and Nuggets have met seven times in the playoffs, including the 2020 conference finals in the pandemic bubble in Orlando, Florida. He also has some significant firepower in the form of Jokic. Michael Malone has the Nuggets in the conference finals for the second time in three years, one step away from the franchise’s first trip to the Finals. ![]() The Lakers won the coaching chess match against a coach and a staff that had won four NBA championships in an eight-year span. Ham pushed all the right buttons, earning raves from Golden State coach Steve Kerr after the Lakers’ second-round series victory. Lakers coach Darvin Ham shifted Dennis Schroder into the starting lineup for Game 6 against Golden State and moved Jarred Vanderbilt to a reserve role for the first time in the playoffs. He followed it up with 13 points in the Lakers’ series-clinching victory in Game 6. Reserve guard Lonnie Walker IV’s fourth-quarter outburst in the Lakers’ victory over the Warriors in Game 4 of their series proved to be more than a one-off. EDGE: LAKERS (barely) BENCHESīoth coaches tightened their rotations to eight players for the first two rounds, which is fairly typical with extra rest between games and no games on consecutive nights as during the regular season. He leads the league in the playoffs in rebounds and blocks. Davis averaged 21.2 points, 14.1 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 3.3 blocked shots in the opening two rounds. James averaged 23.4 points, 10.0 rebounds and 5.3 assists while proving he’s still got serious playoff energy in that 38-year-old body. LeBron James and Anthony Davis were all but unstoppable at times during the Lakers’ first two rounds. averaged 14.5 points, 7.5 rebounds and 1.4 assists in the first two rounds for Denver. Defending him and keeping him from wreaking havoc, will be the key to the series for the Lakers. He averaged nearly a triple-double (30.7 points, 12.8 rebounds, 9.7 assists) in their first two rounds of the playoffs. The Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic is a monster by any measure. He’s going to be a handful, just as the Memphis and Golden State guards were in the earlier rounds. ![]() ![]() Murray is averaging 25.9 points plus 5.2 rebounds and 6.5 assists. Russell and Reaves are averaging 15 points per game during the postseason. They’ll be called upon again during the conference finals against the top-seeded Nuggets, especially to throw Jamal Murray off track. D’Angelo Russell and Austin Reaves have given the Lakers the right kind of balance between offense and defense so far during the playoffs. They were said to be inferior to Steph Curry and Klay Thompson of the sixth-seeded Golden State Warriors in the second round. The seventh-seeded Lakers’ guards were said to be inferior to Ja Morant and Desmond Bane during their first-round series against the second-seeded Memphis Grizzlies. Nuggets (regular-season rank) category … Lakers (regular-season rank)ģ7.9 % (4th) … 3-point Pct. 9: Nuggets 122, Lakers 109, at Denver TALE OF THE TAPE 30: Lakers 121, Nuggets 110, at Arenaĭec.
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