In all seriousness, this has the exact same feel as it did after game 2 of the Clippers series. If I was a Nuggets fan I'd feel extremely good about my team's ability to play with the Lakers. Unfortunately they now have to win 4 of 5 instead of 3 of 5 so they probably aren't winning this series. I was wrong last time, let's see how this one plays out

Yeah but reffing evening out over time is lot less fun to talk about than OBVIOUS RIGGAGE

Now we're only left with having to hate on Lebron for not taking as many uncontested jumpers as Harden

3ball = trainwreckdog.

A user that made nearly 50 accounts over the years and got banned. All about LeBron.

That AD shot melted him. He needs to let it out.

Rewatching the clips of that last shot, looks like Plumlee has a bit of a brain fart and just runs to cover a motionless LeBron, leaving AD to catch uncontested. In real time I thought LeBron had set a screen for him to curl off of, but he literally just stands there and Davis runs like 5 feet clear of him around the arc.

Everyone hates the intentional delay of game thing where the guy guarding the inbounds just steps over the line on purpose, but that might actually have helped them here.

Meh they still got about as good of a contest on a 33% shooter and gave them no chance at a lob. It hurts because that would have been Jokics 9th game winner in the last two years and second of the playoffs, but my boys have been running pretty sick this entire postseason.

Maybe they can get game 2. They seem to bounce back well from heartbreakers.

Why are heat/celtics off for 4 days, when lakers/nugs are off for 1?

Heat/Celtics could easily go 7 games, Lakers/Nugs could easily be a sweep.

Why would they accelerate the west and slow the east?

Hating on Lebron for...

*checks notes*

Not taking selfish, bad shots

*checks notes again*

Probably just wanted to get it to mirror a normal season. For those conspiracy theorists that think this helps the Lakers, I think it hurts them.

what about people who know it helps education reform.

actually 4 days for Jimmy Butler to psychologically abuse his teammates probably a good thing

Its mind boggling at this stage lol, I'm still rooting for the nuggets tho :P

Apparently Dwight, Javale, JR Smith, and Rondo were jawing at Denver saying "Go home!" after AD hit that last shot.

Reminds me of when Marcus Morris yapped to Millsap in game 5. God I hate when scrubs yap like they aren't minimum salary guys riding Lebron's and AD's relevance.

The contest by Jokic was good, it’s letting him catch it clean and gather it into the shot that Plumlee could have done something about.

The go ahead move by Jokic was so awesome though. Backs him down from just inside the arc, and does it so quick that Lakers can’t totally collapse on him. Total bull rush, made AD look like a child.

A few random thoughts:

1) It's starting to become a pattern in the playoffs - Lebron looking invincible in the first half and becoming a tired and disengaged game manager in the second half. He's looked great on defense and it's possible this is just him pacing himself and trying to get his teammates to step up, but it's also possible that this is Lebron's physical limit and that he may merely be one of the very best, as opposed to by far the best, at this point in his career.

2) AD's defense has kind of been disappointing, again not just this game but the whole playoffs - if he didn't make that shot, he would be remembered for being completely owned by Jokic in the previous possession. Even aside from post defense, he has not been a great rim protector, has at times looked slow on rotation and frankly not that effective when switched onto quicker perimeter players. It could be fatigue and I'm not saying he hasn't been great overall, but he hasn't been anywhere near the DPOY level in the playoffs. Lebron's been the better defender overall and I don't think it's been that close. Of course, he's been absurd offensively and may have been more valuable than Lebron, but his shooting is much more likely to regress to his normal levels than his defense is likely to improve IMO.

3) Denver may be on the cusp of becoming the next home-grown dynasty - I don't know their contract/cap situation but Jokic/Murray/MPJ/Harris are 25, 23, 22 and 26 years old and that nightmarish Millsap contract, I think is coming to an end. Jokic is a top-5 player now, Murray may be a fringe top-15 going into the next season and MPJ should grow into an all-star caliber offensive player in the next couple of years. Gary Harris kind of fell apart this year but he used to be an efficient scoring threat, a luxury for a 4th/5th option. It shouldn't be hard to put a championship team around this core in the next few years, given that the other top tier teams in the west are getting older - Clippers/Lakers/Rockets should all be worse next year. The Warriors will be back but Curry is about to turn 33 and Klay and Draymond are both on the wrong side of 30.

yltsi

NBA, dating, now the NFL. What can't this man do?

There's a clip out there of Grant asking for Plumlee's help on LeBron before the play. I think they just assumed LeBron was getting the ball and AD/Rondo took advantage, but imo if anyone is at fault it's Grant bc he had the better angle after Plumlee helped on LeBron. Jokic made a tremendous play to contest it as well as he did, what a player.

Plumlee's defense was fine - it's a 1 point game so 3's don't have any extra value and even a wide open wing-3 by AD is not a particularly high percentage shot. There's enough time on the clock that if Plumlee sticks to AD, AD could pass to a cutting Lebron and potentially get a higher percentage shot than the one taken.

This reminds me of 2009 Lakers/Nugs WCF. In game 1 (or 3, don't remember) Anthony Carter throws a turnover on the inbounds when they are down 2 with like 15 seconds left.

Denver fans remember that as being "the play that lost them the WCF" when in reality it was the play that took them from 25% equity of one game to like 5%... in a six game series.

This is similar, whomever's mistake it was cost them like 5% win equity if anything, and possibly less. The absolute worst thing to happen there is a lob, and if Mase is hugging AD too much the Brow can just dive to the basket.

Moml

AD defense is fine.

Lakers are switching the Murray Jokic pnr so Murray always gets a big on him. And Jokic gets a guard on him in the high post. Jokic is not great at driving the basketball so he has to burn clock to back down the guard and get a shot off. Its obviously a high % play for Denver.

Murray vs AD is a matchup Lakers will live with. It's not a knock on AD if he can't shut down one of the best guards on the game. As long as you limit down the ppp for the Jokic Murray pnr.

Nuggets haven't forced Lakers to adjust this defense.

I will say this, I think that candybar is right that Lebron and the Lakers have looked shaky in a few second halves even in the first two rounds. If Denver can manage to steal game 3, then we could have a series with these teams playing every other day. The Lakers are awesome, but they are very old.

I think Denver gets a decent whistle in game 3 as well.

Nuggets +3000 (series) is free money.

I only saw it at +2600, yeah +3000 is free as free can be.

Maybe not a dynasty, but I can see a spursian run from them. I wasn't as hopeful until Jamal seemingly turned the corner these playoffs though. They are also doing this without their third best player over the regular season as well, and everyone except Grant/Millsap/Plumlee are under contract next year. The biggest win is that Jokic/Murray/Porter are all here under contract/control for 3/4/6ish years respectively.4

Of that bunch, I think Grant needs to remain on the team. Given how little money is out there, I don't think many teams are going to be offering up a lot to grab a guy who's basically an ultra-low usage 3 on defense and a 4 on offense, which is a weird fit. I think several teams would take him at MLE money, which means Denver probably has to eclipse that a little to lock him up long-term.

Think it's just a scheduling conflict with ESPN having ECF and MNF