Nuggets Bust Out Brooms Despite LeBron 40-Piece

Jokic and the boys make history.

The Nuggets made history with their sweep of the Los Angeles Lakers last night. But for what it’s worth, at least it was a competitive game the whole time. On top of that, it was almost an immortalized LeBron James moment. Unfortunately for the King, the old adage is true: you can’t win ‘em all. So what happened last night?

Let me start by saying the first half was nothing short of marvelous on the part of LeBron Raymone James. A man who is 38 years old in his 20th season of NBA basketball should not have performances like he had (especially with over 65,000 minutes played). It was like vintage LeBron on the court. Early on, the Lakers had success doing exactly what the Nuggets have been doing all series long: running the break and getting into the paint. LeBron got an early trip to the free throw line after leaking out on a missed Nuggets jumper, and the next possession, Rui Hachimura practically waltzed into a dunk over Nikola Jokic after Michael Porter Jr. decided defense is overrated (don’t worry, we’ll address that more later). Austin Reeves even got in on the cardio session after a Dennis Schröder steal at 8:40 in the opening quarter.

But LeBron was the star of the first half. He decided to enforce his will early and often. It was true, peak LeBron James. Everything was predicated off of a “score first” mentality. As I mentioned earlier, he got his first points from the charity stripe by getting behind Denver’s slow transition defense, and his first field goal came by way of just bullying Aaron Gordon to get to the cup.

His next field goal should have keyed us in on the fact he was going to have a special night, though. It was an attempted alley-oop to Rui, but instead of finding his hands, it found the bottom of the net. That should have been the moment we knew: LeBron was going to be special.

At that point, I think LeBron knew too. He decided to get loose with a fadeaway in the paint against three defenders only one possession later. He then hit another shot behind the arc a few minutes later and that was when the Nuggets recognized they had a problem. If LeBron is hitting jumpers from beyond the arc, it’s going to be a long night. While I’m personally not a fan of a long range centric strategy from James, I can’t argue with the results. Showing the hot hand ensured the Nuggets had to respect him if he decided to pull the trigger from deep. Naturally, the hot hand opened up the floor for the rest of the quarter. With 2:56 left to play in the first, LeBron targeted MPJ and got to work, and he managed to get his defender in the air to get the and-one. Oh yeah, and he hit two more threes before the end of the first. For those curious, it was a 21 point masterclass from LeBron. In the first quarter. Wow.

He rode his momentum into the second as well. I know he’s older than he once was, but LeBron is still a driver at heart, and I love when he puts his head down and gets to the rim. After getting two steals early in the second, he was able to get Jeff Green in the air with a pump fake to free up his drive. Once he was in the paint, it was two easy points off of a beautiful finger roll over former teammate Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. The Bron-Anthony Davis pick-and-roll was working well too. At 4:15 in the second quarter, LeBron used a dropping Jokic to his advantage and got to the cup for the smooth layup to give himself 29 points in the half. Incredible stuff. The Lakers needed every bit of those points, too, as they took a 73-58 lead into halftime. But the Nuggets were not going to let go of the rope easily.

I am not an NBA coach, and I’m even less of an NBA player. But I am absolutely baffled that the Lakers did not continue finding LeBron after halftime. There were 13 possessions in a row to start the 3rd quarter before LeBron attempted a shot. Why? And the attempt he eventually got was a wide open three on the wing. To be fair, not a bad shot. But within the context of the game, I would have liked to see him put his head down and attack the closeout. On top of that, where was the P&R with AD in the 3rd? I cannot understand why the Lakers got away from their bread and butter, especially because their offense had really stagnated in the quarter. Denver outscored them 36-16 in the 3rd. That kind of offensive output is head scratching to say the least, especially when they had LeBron revved up in the first half. Baffling.

I understand if you think I am trying to diminish what the Nuggets did to win the game, and that is not at all my intention. They earned the win, no doubt about it. Even if it looked like they wanted to give the game away at times. What I am about to say, I say out of love. But why can MPJ still not play defense? At 5:46 in the opening quarter of play, Schröder drove past Jamaal Murray on the right wing via an AD screen. Confoundingly, MPJ stepped up to help WAY too early and lost track of his man, Rui, in the corner. Rui cut backdoor and luckily for MPJ, he was not able to finish the push shot. But it just seemed like an unnecessary risk.

The MPJ defensive woes don’t stop there, though. In the second quarter after a beautiful Aaron Gordon corner three, the Nuggets were running back on defense and for some reason, MPJ picked up Schröder, who was the INBOUNDER, and allowed Jamaal Murray to take the bigger Rui Hachimura. WHY? The Lakers weren’t even pushing the pace. All it would have taken was some recognition and a quick call. That time, it led to an easy Rui bucket after a bump over the smaller Murray. Even as the play was developing, it looked like Murray was holding his hands up in confusion. The shot was totally avoidable. He may have gotten away with these lapses in this game, but if Denver has to face Miami in the Finals, I can guarantee they will make him pay.

The game came down to the wire, and both teams played well down the stretch. LeBron put his mark on the game defensively near the end, drawing two charges from Jokic to give the big man five fouls. On the other end, James went to work attacking Jokic. It was some good stuff. But the game ultimately came down to the final play. Allow me to set the scene: 4.0 seconds left, 113-111 Nuggets, LA ball. Darvin Ham called a timeout to ensure his team was on the same page for getting a good look to either win the game or send it to overtime. This would be their second attempt at doing so, as they had tried earlier to do the same with 31.3 seconds left in the game. The Lakers looked to get LeBron open with a pindown on the left wing. He was actually able to get Aaron Gordon on his hip, and he wanted to attack. However, the Nuggets defended the play really well. Murray was guarding the screener, Rui, and decided to cheat over to take away the easy drive. Rui rolled to the rim, and Jokic picked up, leaving AD open on the opposite wing. Murray’s help was enough to get hands on the ball and make LeBron’s shot near impossible.

I have to be honest, I don’t think I’m a fan of this ATO (after timeout). I would’ve liked to see Rui and AD switch assignments. That could have put some more pressure on the interior and put Rui in position to hit a shot if they needed it. I also don’t like the inactivity of Reeves and Schröder. Once Reeves got the ball in, why not have some kind of action with him and Schröder to hopefully get one of them open? I know LeBron had 40 points on 25 shots, but he was 4-for-12 in the second half. Why not leverage the gravity he had created to get someone else a better shot? I don’t want to harp on this too much. Drawing stuff up in the moment is tough, and LeBron had a good night all around. Everyone knew he was going to take the final shot. It was still an awesome game, and there was a lot I did not cover here. While Denver certainly earned their historic very first finals appearance in 47 years as a franchise, they will have their hands full in the Finals, especially if the Heat are able to close out the floundering Celtics tonight.