In a fun turn of events, the 2023 Playoffs is mirroring the bubble postseason as the Los Angeles Lakers face off against the Denver Nuggets again in the Western Conference Finals.
The Lakers beat the Nuggets in five games, with Anthony Davis having his most iconic playoff moment when he drained a buzzer-beating 3 in Game 2 to give Los Angeles a 2-0 series lead. However, Denver is a much more dangerous team led by Nikola Jokic who’s won two MVP awards since their last postseason clash.
Ahead of their rematch, Anthony Davis acknowledged that both squads are completely different teams but that he and the rest of the Lakers would go back and watch film to see how they were able to succeed last time.
“It’s hard to say just because they’re a different team. We’re a different team. I think the biggest thing for us was obviously having Dwight disrupt Jokic a little bit. He’s obviously one of the two guys that get them going, him and Jamal Murray. And actually it’s funny, me and Bron talked about it earlier about going back watching that series and kind of see what we did to kind of figure out how we can best matchup and get victories over them. We’ll go back look at it, but I think the biggest key was just kind of make the ball find the guys we want to find and just play off of that.”
The 2020 championship team had capable perimeter defenders in Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Alex Caruso and Danny Green and the big man depth in Dwight Howard and JaVale McGee to help slow down Jokic. This year’s iteration of the roster lacks those kinds of players, but has still maintained an elite defensive profile under Darvin Ham.
Ham, who is enjoying his first postseason run as head coach, has been excellent in the playoffs at making adjustments but now has the task of figuring out how his roster can prevent Jokic and the Nuggets from scoring so efficiently.
The playoffs have always been a game of chess, and with Los Angeles and Denver both capable of winning the title it’ll be interesting to see which head coach wins the tactical battle.
Anthony Davis doesn’t make All-Defensive Team for 2022-23 season
While the Lakers don’t have as many elite perimeter defenders, they’ve been treated to the best defensive streak Davis has ever been on. However, voters didn’t seem to value his defensive impact during the regular season as he wasn’t named to any of the All-Defensive teams.
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