Did the Lakers ‘find something' in impressive win over Denver?
Yahoo Sports senior NBA reporter Vincent Goodwill is joined by Bomani Jones to break down the Lakers 123-100 defensive win over the Nuggets and recent adjustment under head coach JJ Redick. Hear the full conversation on 'Good Word with Goodwill' and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.
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I've never seen Nikola Jokic look swarmed like that.
Like everything was contested.
The Lakers didn't appeal to him with size.
They just appealed to him with length and covering up passing lanes and everything else.
Is that a market the Nuggets not being as good as I thought?
Or does this mean that the Lakers have legit found something?
In the last month of the season on the defensive end, even adding Lukaontri and getting rid of Anthony Davis.
What I wonder about though, as we have watched Denver largely own the Lakers over the last couple of years, if this is a matter of the Lakers have made.
A significant alteration to which their team is.
And this is the first time that Denver is seeing it.
Let's say that that was game one of a seven game series and we started saying it's one game, now it's time for Mike Malone to make the adjustment, right?
Now is that time for him in theory, right, to make the adjustment.
It almost feels like you're saying a first round exit is more likely than a wrong.
To the finals.
Oh, but I'm not.
That's the thing.
I think what happened was we just saw them lose a game to a team with a coach for whom, look, at this point, beating the Nuggets meant a lot more to the Lakers than beating the Lakers meant to the Nuggets because the Nuggets have been their true real live nemesis, you know, at this point, right?
But looking at it right now.
If the season ended today, the Nuggets would play the Clippers in the first round.
No, I do not think the Clippers are going to beat them in the first round.
If it turned into Lakers, Nuggets 45, I still don't know what exactly the Luca, LeBron, that whole team combination is going to look like.
I don't know.
Right?
Um, but I'm not, I'm not there yet for them.
I don't feel like I, let me tell you something.
If JJ can turn them into a very good defensive team with the pieces they have right now, wow, he should have been coaching 15 years ago.
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