After missing the playoffs in the 2018-19 season, LeBron James’ first year with the Los Angeles Lakers, it was clear that he needed a co-star. Anthony Davis would eventually be traded to the team that following summer with hopes of winning a championship immediately.
The Lakers were in a rebuild for numerous years and James, followed by Davis, would bring the team back to winning ways. In one summer, L.A. went from a young and inexperienced team to a roster full of veterans.
That experience paid off as they coasted to the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference before the season got suspended due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Thankfully, the season resumed in late July in the bubble in Orlando, where the Lakers could carry out their championship aspirations.
In the Western Conference Finals, they met with Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets. While Jokic is unguardable, L.A. had the size and physicality of Davis, Dwight Howard and JaVale McGee to disrupt him. Now a few years later, Jokic admitted that going up against that Lakers frontline was the toughest defense he’s seen, via Michael Porter Jr.’s podcast “Curious Mike”:
“I think… It was the bubble right when they (Lakers) had three-four big guys, when they AD, JaVale (McGee), [Dwight Howard]. That’s kind of like what Minnesota did, they put (Karl-Anthony) Towns and Rudy (Gobert) kind of behind him.”
While Jokic was still emerging and growing as a player at the time, he was a handful for whoever matched up against him. Before facing the Lakers in the playoffs, Denver was coming off a 3-1 series comeback against the Los Angeles Clippers and had all the confidence in the world.
However, that quickly came to a halt as the Lakers eliminated the Nuggets in five games.
For someone who has been deemed unstoppable, it is a sign of respect and acknowledgment to how good that 2020 Lakers defense was. It was clear that Jokic was bothered by the physical play, specifically of Howard, who was not afraid to body up with the future two-time MVP.
However, Jokic would get his revenge against the Lakers by beating them in the 2023 Western Conference Finals. It was primarily a rematch with Davis, who had a great defensive postseason last year, but Jokic seemed unfazed and was able to play more physically, learning from the last meeting in the bubble.
Now in the 2023-24 season, the Lakers still lack a physical presence at center, which is something they will need to address if they match up with Jokic and the Nuggets again in the playoffs.
Markieff Morris: Lakers were ‘locked in’ for bubble championship
The 2020 season was a rough year for many, one of those reasons being the loss of the late, great Kobe Bryant. Markieff Morris recently said that the team was ‘locked in’ when the bubble kicked off and wanted to win a championship for Bryant.
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