Lakers News: Denver Starter Not Looking Past LA Series In 2024 Playoffs

Matt Levine | Apr 19, 2024

Not even a year ago the Los Angeles Lakers walked off the floor of Crypto.com Arena having been swept out of the Western Conference Finals by the Denver Nuggets. Despite being competitive in each game, the Nuggets got the best of the Lakers four straight times.

Fast forward to the present day and the Lakers still haven't been able to solve the Denver puzzle. The Nuggets swept them during the regular season again but Los Angeles now has a chance to flip the script. After taking down the New Orleans Pelicans in the Play-In game, the Lakers are set for a rematch with the Nuggets in the first round of the postseason.

But despite all the success that Denver had seen over the Lakers, Nuggets forward Michael Porter Jr. isn't looking past Los Angeles.

“The Lakers are a very good team as well,” Porter Jr. said. “We may have swept them last year, but it was a battle every game. They were in the game – I think they were in every game and then it came down to the last two or three minutes where we kind of pull away. So, it may have looked like we dominated, but that was a very good matchup last year. So, we’re taking everyone serious.”

Denver wants to repeat and the Lakers want to take them down. The Nuggets know this so this is a good mentality to have entering the series. But the Lakers have confidence in themselves, even with their inconsistency throughout the year.

The biggest key for the Lakers will be making sure they take care of late-game situational basketball. They have struggled to finish games out against Denver so they'll have to play almost perfect basketball down the stretch. While these two teams are different from a year ago, they both have the motivation to want to beat each other.