Initial thoughts from the Nuggets’ Game 1 victory over Lakers at Ball Arena in the Western Conference playoffs.
1. KC3 meets the moment: At halftime the Nuggets looked like they were shooting 3s from Northglenn, bricking 6 of 23. Hard to tell who was worse: The Nuggets’ long-range bombs or Rocky’s endless half-court airballs. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope was scoreless and 0 for 3 from beyond the arc. Then he put a thermometer in his mouth, read his temperature at 100.4 and gave himself a heat check. Caldwell-Pope nailed four from distance in the third quarter as the Nuggets turned a three-point halftime deficit into an 89-75 cushion after 45 minutes. Caldwell-Pope is known for his unselfishness and defense. But when the Nuggets needed someone to create spacing and start hitting from distance, KC3 answered the call as Denver won its ninth straight game vs. the Lakers, making 9 of 19 second-half 3s.
2. Joker very serious: Part of the reason the Lakers can only compete with the Nuggets but not beat them is because they have no answer for Nikola Jokic. As he did during the regular season, Jokic won the head-to-head matchup with Anthony Davis. Davis played well in the first half, draining 18 points. But he disappeared in the third when the Nuggets made their run, scoring four, which included quality minutes from Denver backup DeAndre Jordan (nobody came into this series more rested than Jordan). Jokic remained inevitable, with 11 points in the first and eight in the third and his sort-of-dunk on James with 3:41 left in the game and a real dunk with 1:16 remaining that pulled the curtain on any comeback. “Whose Your Daddy?” chants rang out in the arena after the slam. Jokic drained 32 as all starters finished in double figures.
3. James Gang: LeBron James is aging like Benjamin Button. Through the first two quarters, he was the best player on the floor. That sentence has been written countless times, but rarely for anyone at age 39 in the playoffs. James was on one early, hitting seven of his first 10 shots and all three of his 3s, including one from roughly 40 feet to end the second quarter. He led all scorers with 19 at halftime, and finally cooled in the third quarter as the Nuggets began to assert their will. James ran out of gas, finished with 27 points, and put the world on notice that the Lakers might go home in a week but it won’t be because of him.
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