Lakers in 6. pic.twitter.com/NYy03cmE4X — Ryan Rueda (@iDude14) April 19, 2024 ..read more

Lakers Picked to Upset Nuggets by NBA Scouthttps://t.co/Ev5mZamZP1 via @BleacherReport — LakerTom (@LakerTom) April 19, 2024 LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers went from not being guaranteed a playoff spot to being picked to upset the defending champions in less than a week. Following the Lakers’ Tuesday play-in win over the New Orleans Pelicans, an NBA scout told The Athletic’s Josh Robbins and Sam Amick that the Lakers will defeat the Denver Nuggets in the first round “because they’ve got their mojo going.” “They played great at the end of the year. They got their lineup set with Rui ..read more

Austin Reaves wants D'Angelo Russell to remain with Lakers https://t.co/67H6v7l7jc via @yardbarker — LakerTom (@LakerTom) April 19, 2024 Los Angeles Lakers guard D’Angelo Russell has a player option for the 2024-25 season. While he is expected to decline that option in favor of securing a longer-term deal on the free-agent market, Austin Reaves, for one, would like Russell to remain with the team. Reaves discussed his relationship with his fellow guard during a recent interview with Michael Scotto of HoopsHype. “I want him to be around,” Reaves said. “That’s probably my best friend on the te ..read more

Do the new Lakers have a shot against the Nuggets? Can the Pacers beat the Giannis-less Bucks? And how will the Clippers deal with Luka? @MichaelVPina previews the first round:https://t.co/pYt1zm2UHV — The Ringer (@ringer) April 19, 2024 Can the Los Angeles Lakers’ new players make a difference? We pretty much already know that dominant efforts from LeBron James and Anthony Davis aren’t good enough to topple Denver, a team that swept them last postseason and they haven’t beaten since 2022. (How long ago was that? Russell Westbrook had a triple-double!) But compared to last year’s roster, the ..read more

Renck: Why are the Nuggets the Lakers’ daddy? Because L.A. has no answer for Nikola Jokic — and neither does anyone else. https://t.co/kRkA1RxRIZ — LakerTom (@LakerTom) April 19, 2024 They gave us what we wanted: The Nuggets back on stage with Maury Povich and a manila envelope. In the case of the 64-year-old Los Angeles Lakers, you are the father. Denver welcomes the Lakers back to Ball Arena on Saturday as family. Cup your ears from Trinidad to Windsor and you can still hear the “Who’s your daddy?” chant that reverberated throughout Ball Arena on Ring Night back in October. This came mere ..read more

How LeBron James and the Lakers are planning to end Denver's dominance against them https://t.co/usX5CIz5tf — LakerTom (@LakerTom) April 19, 2024 One of those is the Nuggets’ late-game proficiency, where they’ve been able to seemingly make every big shot in every big moment to close the Lakers out. “it’s a combination of a couple different things. That’s why I mentioned consistent discipline with our execution, make sure we get the right shots that we know makes us that much more hard to guard,” coach Darvin Ham said of the late-game problems. “And give them credit. They had different guys s ..read more

Former NBA Star Makes Controversial Lakers vs. Nuggets Prediction https://t.co/FPen1Ojknt — LakerTom (@LakerTom) April 19, 2024 All eyes will be on the superstar battle between LeBron James and Nikola Jokic in this upcoming series between the Denver Nuggets and Los Angeles Lakers, but the supporting casts on both sides will be equally as important to determining the outcome of this series. For former Memphis Grizzlies guard Gilbert Arenas, he sees D’Angelo Russell being the key. “If [D’Angelo Russell] plays the way he’s been playing this season, we’re winning the series,” Arenas said. “We lo ..read more

While the Nuggets are a tough matchup for the Lakers, having swept them in last year’s conference finals and beaten them eight straight games, this is not this year’s conference finals and these are not last year’s Lakers team. The media loves to create headline stories about how the Nuggets are the Lakers’ daddy and how L.A. will be lucky to win one or two games at best from Denver when the two teams meet in the first round of the playoffs. What the media is not considering is a first round playoff series between the Lakers and Nuggets will be dramatically different than those two teams meeti ..read more

LeBron on Denver: "… I've been in the postseason way too long in my career to know that you don't get too high off of Game 1 or get too high over whoever the matchup is. You gotta just stay even-keeled. There's gonna be a lot of swings throughout the course of the game,… — Jovan Buha (@jovanbuha) April 18, 2024 ..read more

"Lakers in 6!!" — @getnickwright breaks down all the reasons why he's taking L.A. over the defending champs: pic.twitter.com/vA87Yrn0ap — First Things First (@FTFonFS1) April 17, 2024 ..read more