Denver in 5 or sweep

[Manny98]

Always said 3ball is one of the highest IQ posters, it's just his fixation on the same two topics is what brings him down to being insufferable

[Kblaze8855]

Wasn’t there a “The league makes Lebrons teams too good to lose” topic or do I have who made that mixed up?

[tpols]

Actually, I thought the MOST about the "others" but simply cut out the weeds and presented the factors that matter - I realized that the role players cancel out for this particular series.. Essentially, the over-stacked-ness of the Lakers causes a situation where the 5th through 7th best players (Rui, Walker, Vanderbilt) don't get enough minutes (barely 100 minutes each) to impact the series the way lesser talents like Pope or Bowen do (150-200 minutes).. This is part of the Nuggets' chemistry advantage from having a long-standing organic system and chemistry that allows these guys to be superstars in their roles, while the Lakers bite their fingernails on the bench and wonder if they'll get back in the game

OP really called that shit. Lakers were shook in every 4th quarter while the Nuggets were cool and confident.

[3ba11]

Wasn’t there a “The league makes Lebrons teams too good to lose” topic or do I have who made that mixed up?

Yes but this assumes a dominant Lebron and passable clutch numbers, not the horrific play that we saw.

The only reason the Lakers started playing great is because Reaves, Rui, D-Lo and company went bonkers late in the season with Lebron off-the-ball.

Unfortunately, Lebron isn't capable of being dominant as an off-ball player, so he could only add 23 ppg on top of the existing roster and yield a whimpering underdog instead of adding 30-35 like MJ or Curry to produce dominant favorites

In previous years, it was Lebron's ball-dominance that produced underdogs and this year it was Lebron's inability to dominate off-ball - either way his weak off-ball play hurt his team's chemistry, strategy and team ceiling for his entire career - 2 decades of underdogs and needy teams due to the weak chemistry & strategy that his skillset yields

[3ba11]

I was going to make a new thread for this year but this one will suffice

[BarberSchool]

This bump will be priceless if Denver can deliver back to back sweeps to LeFraud Shames and the FakeShow.

Hopefully the league’s corrupt figureheads can resist fixing it the way I assumed they would last year lol

100% not a sweep.

Lakers will win AT LEAST game 3 or 4, with hella FTA. Cmon man lol

Lakers FTA in game 3-4 will be numerous, and they will likely win both games at home and the media will sell a line of sh!t to the programmable suckers placing bets from the SoCal region, to get them all hype for games 5 and 6, when “do the lakers now have the momentum?” Line, then let their Vegas friends laugh all the way to the bank in game 5 & 6.

Denver in 6.

Never felt so good to be so wrong!
Thank the NBA for not attempting some obvious fixing for a major market historic franchise.

[j3lademaster]

Jokic had 5 points on 28.6% shooting when defended by AD and his other 27 points were scored on Lebron, Rui, and Reaves on 81% shooting. His percentage on Lebron was 86%. AD also lead the Lakers in points, rebounds and blocks. He’s become a forgotten superstar imo.

https://www.nba.com/game/lal-vs-den-...?type=matchups

[BarberSchool]

Lakers played their best first half in years.
LeBron had a seriously great game defensively, in transition, timely and clutch half court scoring, one of the best passes of the entire season with that quick recognition 65ft fling to AD down court….

AD had his best first half in many years.
Attempted 1 shot in the 4th. 0pts.

DLo shot the lights out in the first 30min.

And they’re still down 2-0.

All the pressure is now on them to win game 3 at home.
If the game is close in the 4th quarter, watch carefully who shrinks.

[ImKobe]

Jokic had 5 points on 28.6% shooting when defended by AD and his other 27 points were scored on Lebron, Rui, and Reaves on 81% shooting. His percentage on Lebron was 86%. AD also lead the Lakers in points, rebounds and blocks. He’s become a forgotten superstar imo.

https://www.nba.com/game/lal-vs-den-...?type=matchups

AD will always take the blame and get none of the credit for the wins. That's how it is being a teammate of Lebron's. AD will have a monster game in a win and the first Laker-related thing you see on r/NBA is some clip of Bron or his stat line while AD's is mentioned somewhere deep in the post-game results page.

Look at how they mocked his injuries these previous years and criticized him online and on national TV when he didn't put up huge scoring numbers in the POs despite his dominant play on the defensive side. No real mention of his durability or his improved play this year, they just kinda point that out in passing but they'll give him all the shit if he does underpeform. A rookie on a 22-win team is a DPOY finalist over him. It's a joke.

[SATAN]

AD disappeared in the second half. I blame the coaching though. It's the same shit over and over again. Just call time and get the guys right. Adjust and get some plays going when "it" happens. Do anything other than what has been done so often this season.

Just the same bad habits and lack of direction slowly unfolding again. I called it in the second quarter.

[elementally morale]

AD disappeared in the second half. I blame the coaching though. It's the same shit over and over again. Just call time and get the guys right. Adjust and get some plays going when "it" happens. Do anything other than what has been done so often this season.

Just the same bad habits and lack of direction slowly unfolding again. I called it in the second quarter.

But what happened in the 4th? Davis got a long rest and was hitting all his shots. He was 14 of 15 from the field at a point. Then he missed 3 in a row (probably shouldn't have taken that 3 from the corner that started it) and got his long rest. Came back in the 4th and did nothing. Why is that? I have to rewatch if he was passive or they stopped feeding him the ball because the game was intense and I don't remember. Do you?

[SATAN]

It seems like you're trying to bait me into saying something but I can't pin it on one particular thing apart from the coaching not getting him involved again. I recall a couple times LeBron looked like he was trying to do too much (think that was the third Q). Maybe AD becomes more passive or confused when such things happen. maybe he was tired. Who knows but it's happened quite often since joining LA. Also, PFs were obviously a factor.

[ImKobe]

AD disappeared in the second half. I blame the coaching though. It's the same shit over and over again. Just call time and get the guys right. Adjust and get some plays going when "it" happens. Do anything other than what has been done so often this season.

Just the same bad habits and lack of direction slowly unfolding again. I called it in the second quarter.

It's been a thing since he joined LA. He gets iced out of so many games, regardless of his play. They want to play faster at times which I get, but your best option is being iced out of 2nd halves on a consistent basis. No wonder the offense struggles as much as it does. They were 11th in pace their championship year and were 11th in ORTG. 16th in pace the year after though it was ruined by injuries. Haven't been as good since they started playing more up-tempo in '22.

[SATAN]

AD said none of them had a clue what they were doing. Ham is gone.

Just a shame he had to waste a couple last seasons of the GOAT's career though.

[Jasper]

thought this was a poll ...lol sweep