How The Lakers Win Game 2 📝

The Nuggets, and specifically Nikola Jokic, played perfect basketball in the first three quarters of Tuesday's Game 1 win. But the adjustments from the Lakers in the 4th quarter were promising. It'll be interesting to see how Game 2 starts, but I like the Lakers tonight 🏀 (3 min read)

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Game 2 Preview

Despite knocking off the reigning champs, the Lakers are now faced with their biggest challenge yet — a road to the Finals that goes right through Denver. With a series deficit for the first time in the playoffs after dropping Game 1, the Lakers will need to get to work if they want to make their second Finals in four years of the LeBron and AD pairing ⌚️

When they met in the Bubble, LA was the favorite, but now, Denver is the hottest team left and looking for their first Finals appearance in franchise history. The Nuggets’ odds to advance have only gotten bigger after Tuesday night’s win 👇

Still though, the buzz around the Lakers is that they are confident that the second half adjustments they made, which helped them trim a 21-pt Denver lead to just three in the game’s final minutes, can help them even the series in Game 2 👀

To get specific, throwing Rui Hachimura onto Jokic allowed AD to roam off of Aaron Gordon and regain some interior dominance as a help defender, slowing the two-time MVP’s historic start to the game 💪

  • Jokic’s first three quarters: 31 PTS (12-15 FG), 19 REB, 12 AST, 3 TO

  • Jokic’s fourth quarter: 3 PTS (0-2 FG), 2 REB, 2 AST, 2 TO

While the Nuggets will certainly have the opportunity to be more creative with slotting Aaron Gordon away from the basket and involving him in off-ball actions to pull AD away from the basket, Rui’s lower body strength and wingspan gave Jokic a more physical look than what AD offered 🗣

Rui might be the best individual on-ball matchup Jokic has seen in these playoffs, especially with AD backing him as the league’s best help defender around the rim 😤

Still, the Lakers had to overcome a second rotational issue in order to mount their almost-epic second-half comeback — D’Angelo Russell’s inconsistency. In 26 total minutes, only nine of which came in the second half, D’Lo was a game-low -25 in box plus-minus, while no other Lakers finished worse than -8

Although this isn’t the first time D’Lo has started a series out slow, it wasn’t just Russell’s results that were bad, his process was too. He repeatedly forced up long-twos out of post-ups and isolations early in the shot clock and before the Lakers had the opportunity to run any semblance of structured offense. D’Lo was so rough that even Nuggets’ head coach Mike Malone took not in his media availability on Wednesday 😏

Despite D’Lo’s struggles, the Lakers are reportedly reluctant to bring Russell off the bench for a fear they might “lose” the 27-year-old guard. Regardless, Lakers head coach Darvin Ham has had no issue benching Russell down the stretch on night’s he’s struggled, and will likely do so, even earlier in Game 2 if Russell performs as he did in Game 1 🤢

After being 6.5-point underdogs going into Game 1, it seems like the Lakers’ desperation has earned them a point in the eyes of oddsmakers. Still, the Nuggets are a heavy favorite to remain undefeated at home after opening up the playoffs with seven straight wins in Denver 👇

  • Spread: Nuggets -5.5

  • Moneyline: Nuggets -225, Lakers +188

  • O/U: 226.5

Trivia Question: In addition to the Nuggets, which teams have yet to make an NBA Finals?

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For My Parlay Gurus

Based on their second-half performance and the continued adjustment to the altitude, I like the Lakers pull off the upset. Easier said than done, but if LAL can limit Jokic to a performance closer to his fourth-quarter numbers than those from the game’s first three, they have a chance. Won’t be a popular pick, but I’m riding with the Lakers tonight 👑

  • Lakers ML @ Nuggets: +188

  • Nikola Jokic Under 28.5 Points: -111

$100 on this bet would win you $356 — if we hit, make sure you email [email protected] for a chance to win up to $100*. Many will enter, only some will win 😉

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Trivia Answer: Including the Nuggets, six teams have never made the Finals. The other five are the Clippers, Wolves, Hornets, Grizzlies and Pelicans

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