Murray's Game-Winner Lifts Nuggets to 4-1 Series Win Over Lakers
After hitting a game-winning buzzer beater to give the Denver Nuggets a 2-0 series lead over the L.A. Lakers, Jamal Murray nailed a game-winning jumper to lift the Nuggets to a 108-106 game five victory that moved the Nuggets into the second round and sent the Lakers home. Murray finished with a game-high 32 points on 13-28 field goal shooting (including 5-10 from three point range), and he averaged 23.6 ppg in the series. Michael Porter Jr. added 26 points on 8-12 field goal shooting, including 5-7 from beyond the arc. Nikola Jokic stuffed the boxscore with 25 points on 12-21 field goal shooting, a game-high 20 rebounds, and nine assists; the only blemish on his stellar performance was that he committed a game-high seven turnovers. Jokic averaged 28.2 ppg, 16.2 rpg, and 9.8 apg in the series while shooting .591 from the field; that combination of scoring, rebounding, passing, and high efficiency shooting is reminiscent of the numbers posted by Wilt Chamberlain when he won three straight regular season MVPs and one NBA title from 1966-68. No other player in pro basketball history has simultaneously checked off all four of those boxes.
LeBron James scored a team-high 30 points on 11-21 field goal shooting, passed for a game-high 11 assists, and grabbed nine rebounds in 44 minutes--a strong stat line for any player, and a remarkable stat line for a 39 year old veteran of 21 NBA seasons. James is still highly productive as an individual, but his stats do not translate into team success. The difference between the Lakers and the Nuggets is that the Nuggets are singularly focused on winning: they don't care who gets the individual stats, or who gets the credit. They are drama-free. In contrast, drama has swirled around the Lakers from the moment that James joined the team: there is always a story brewing about who will be traded, who will be signed, will the coach be fired, will James leave, who will be blamed.
Anthony Davis had 17 points, 15 rebounds, and four assists. As often happens, he suffered an injury that limited his aggressiveness and his effectiveness. This time, it was his shoulder/neck. At some point--and we have surpassed that point--it should be understood that when ranking players like Joel Embiid, Anthony Davis, and Zion Williamson their propensity for being injured during the games that matter most is every bit as relevant as their skill set strengths. Most of the all-time great players either did not get hurt often or else did not miss games often during their prime years, but the opposite is true of Embiid, Davis, and Williamson, and that is why--despite their undeniable talent--they have combined to win just one championship. At this point, it would be surprising if we ever see any of those players advancing past the second round of the playoffs.
The Lakers enjoyed a halftime lead in each of the first four games of this series, and they did not break that streak in game five, outscoring the Nuggets 53-50 in the first 24 minutes. The Lakers led for most of the game, and they led 104-103 with 1:33 remaining in the fourth quarter after James' driving layup but--as happens almost every time these teams face each other--the Nuggets executed better down the stretch and won the game.
It is odd how much attention has been paid to the Lakers' halftime leads and total time spent leading. All that matters is who leads at the final buzzer. The Philadelphia 76ers trailed at halftime in each game of the 1983 NBA Finals, but all that anyone remembers--and all that anyone should remember--is that the 76ers swept the Lakers 4-0 to cap off a record-setting 12-1 playoff run. Will the NBA or its media partners develop a new official statistic for "minutes led" or "halftime leads" and then credit LeBron James for setting yet another record?
Instead of focusing on the Lakers' meaningless halftime leads, focus on the fact that the Lakers have won two playoff series in the four years since capturing the 2020 "bubble" championship, though of course no one can forget their epic NBA Cup win and the ensuing banner-hanging ceremony. Take away their playoff wins in the "bubble," and the James-Davis Lakers have an 11-16 playoff record, including 3-11 on the road--which strongly suggests that without the comforts of playing neutral site playoff games in the "bubble" the James-Davis Lakers would not have won a championship.
The historical NBA standard is that star players receive the brunt of the blame when their teams fail to meet expectations. Even the great Magic Johnson was temporarily dubbed "Tragic" Johnson after his Lakers lost to the Celtics in the 1984 NBA Finals. Kobe Bryant was pilloried for not figuring out how to win more when his starting point guard was Smush Parker and his starting center was Kwame Brown (it is a fun exercise picturing how LeBron James would react to having that supporting cast).
However, James has repeatedly been granted a rare hall pass: losses are generally not portrayed to be James' fault, so look for James to either (1) pressure the Lakers to fire Coach Darvin Ham and reshape the roster yet again or (2) jump to a team that he perceives to provide greener pastures. Asked after the game if he plans to return to the Lakers, James smiled and declined to answer the question. James has the option to become a free agent this summer and he has the contractual right to go wherever he wants, but the point is that he has created drama and instability everywhere he goes by always having one eye on the exit as opposed to having two eyes on what is best for his current franchise.
Meanwhile, Jokic dominates with no drama, no team-hopping, and without throwing anyone under the bus--and he dominates without playing alongside a single All-Star, let alone playing alongside a roster that he handpicked that includes a player voted to the NBA's 75th Anniversary Team (Davis) and a player who has made the All-Star team once (D'Angelo Russell).
As the first round progresses, it is interesting that 75th Anniversary Team members LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Kevin Durant, and Stephen Curry combined to win one playoff game this year: Durant's Phoenix Suns got swept by the Minnesota Timberwolves, the James/Davis Lakers managed one win, and Curry's Golden State Warriors lost in the Play-In Tournament. All season long, we heard (1) how strong the Western Conference supposedly is, and (2) how the Lakers, Suns, and Warriors are three teams that no one wants to face in a seven game series. The reality is that the Western Conference was overrated overall, and those three teams specifically were overrated: they are three teams that everyone would (or should) want to face. Throw in the New Orleans Pelicans being swept by the Oklahoma City Thunder, and it is evident that Oklahoma City, Denver, and Minnesota are a class above the rest of the West (with the jury still out regarding the winner of the Dallas-L.A. Clippers series).
Labels: Anthony Davis, Denver Nuggets, Jamal Murray, L.A. Lakers, LeBron James, Nikola Jokic
posted by David Friedman @ 2:09 AM
12 Comments:
As good as Denver went in this series, they have something to think about before next round. They seem to be susceptible to old time winning formula of pounding the paint. Lakers couldn't profit much from this vulnerability, because they couldn't sustain it, but Minnesota seems capable even if deemed "dumb as bricks"". On the other hand Suns didn't resist much, so it may be just a bias. This should be interesting serie anyway.
If the primary goal for the Lakers is to win more championships, which I’m not convinced it is, then they are in a very tangled situation. I’m assuming that they will do everything within their power to re-sign LeBron who will be turning 40 in December and they have Anthony Davis locked in until the 2027-2028 season where he will be making $70,188,370 while also being in his mid-thirties. Neither player can lead a team to a championship at this point and the chances of them leading the Lakers to another championship get smaller and smaller with each passing season.
Just as they wanted LeBron to be in a Laker jersey when he passed Kareem, I think the Lakers will do whatever it takes to have Bronny and LeBron in a Laker jersey at some point, possibly as early as next season. It appears that publicity and ratings are the primary goal for the Lakers at this stage, knowing that another championship in the foreseeable future is out of the question.
> It appears that publicity and ratings are the primary goal for the Lakers at this stage, knowing that another championship in the foreseeable future is out of the question.
For a long time the Lakers were a professionally run organization that was focused on maximizing the success of the team, and was wildly successful at that. Because it was based in LA, there was always "drama" around them, simply due to how much attention they got from the press and how every little thing was magnified by the media.
But in the last decade, as ownership passed to the next generation, it did finally turn into a true Hollywood mess, and we see the results. This is the worst decade in the franchise history, with the last 11 seasons featuring:
- 7 times missed the playoffs altogether
- 2 first round exits
- 1 WCF appearance
- 1 championship with a big asterisk attached to it
If you have missed the playoffs a grand total of 5 times in the previous 65 seasons, and you made the finals 31 times, so basically every other year, this is a staggering fall from grace.
It isn't entirely on Lebron -- you can argue things were already no longer run competently since the mid-00s and it was Kobe's brilliance that papered over it -- but bringing him there foreclosed on any chances to build a proper team for the long run and cemented the freak show nature of the franchise for the foreseeable future, a hole that it will be very hard to dig out from. And it was quite obvious it would go that way from the very start back in 2018.
Gee, thank god the Kobe and Shaq years were not focused on drama. I'm so glad Phil Jackson took the high road and didn't constantly leak to his feelings to his favorite beat writers. Imagine how worse it would have been if he wrote a book about it! Thank god for his restraint.
Anon:
Here are some facts that may help you understand the difference between the Shaq/Kobe/Jackson era and the LeBron era:
Championships won as a Laker:
Phil Jackson: 5
Kobe Bryant: 5
Shaquille O'Neal: 3
LeBron James: 1* (*--in the "bubble" with no travel between games and with no hostile road crowds)
Considering those facts, how do you think that Lakers' fans would rank those four individuals? Put another way, how would you evaluate the championship/drama ratio for each individual? Who produced more titles, and who produced more drama?
"LeBron James: 1* (*--in the "bubble" with no travel between games and with no hostile road crowds)"
--> but bubble Lakers also had no home crowd advantages, and their opponents had no hostile road crowds. they beat all competition, under the game as it was played
Anonymous:
What is more impressive, winning a marathon on a flat course with no rain, or winning a marathon running uphill in a downpour? All competitors faced the same task in both situations, but the latter is more impressive.
The Lakers won their 2020 title under much easier conditions than other championship teams, and we can see the difference based on how the Lakers performed in the playoffs outside of the "bubble."
"What is more impressive, winning a marathon on a flat course with no rain, or winning a marathon running uphill in a downpour? All competitors faced the same task in both situations, but the latter is more impressive." I don't see why; everyone played under the same conditions, yet Giannis, Steph, Butler, etc., couldn't win the title in the "easy" year.... To me a more valid criticism would be that the covid-year hiatus gave an unusual -- and therefore arbitrary -- advantage to older (LBJ) and injury-prone (Street Clothes Davis) players
Anonymous:
Only one person is going to win the marathon, and only one team is going to win the championship. That has nothing to do with how easy or how difficult the task was.
"Only one person is going to win the marathon, and only one team is going to win the championship. That has nothing to do with how easy or how difficult the task was."
==> so in golf, do they rank major wins based on how much under par the champion finished? do they say, well, he won the PGA Championship, but the course was playing "easy" (15 players finished in red #s) -- it was not comparable to winning the US Open where even par won the tournament? or, he won the British Open in extreme wind conditions, so that was a "difficult" major victory? what's Tiger's degree-of-difficulty-weighted major win total versus Jack's? I've followed golf since the 1990s and have never heard of this line of thinking -- even though golf would be the sport best suited to it.
(or are "easy" and "difficult" is defined by the number of competitors playing under the same conditions, whom you have to defeat to win the title?)
Anonymous:
I am not a golf expert, but I have heard commentators rank championships based on how difficult the course conditions were. I would also say that not all four Grand Slam tennis tournaments are created equal, either.
My larger point here is that--contrary to LeBron's assertions that his comeback from a 3-1 Finals deficit and then his "bubble" title cemented his standing as the greatest ever--if we are going to start ranking titles as opposed to counting them all equally then I would rank the "bubble" title below most others.
LeBron and his media sycophants realize that LeBron is not going to catch Kobe (5-2 Finals record) or Jordan (6-0 in the Finals)--much less Bill Russell (11-1 in the Finals)--so they are shifting the narrative to count some of LeBron's championships as being extra valuable. They like that narrative better than the reality of his 4-6 record plus the reality of him quitting in the 2010 playoffs and 2011 Finals.
We can agree to disagree about this.
(same anon) I agree that LBJ's comments about the Cleveland title cementing his GOAT status were absurd (despite his greatness as a player).
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