Lakers News: Bruce Brown Says Quiet Part Out Loud Regarding Denver's Game 1 Strategy

Will it work a second time tonight?

On Tuesday night, your Los Angeles Lakers looked absolutely overwhelmed by the top-seeded Denver Nuggets in the first half of the first game of the Western Conference Finals. LA rallied midway through the third quarter, making a critical defensive adjustment with regard to Anthony Davis, to get the contest close, but Denver ultimately won, 132-126.

Reserve Nuggets guard Bruce Brown perhaps got a little too honest about the Lakers player Denver targeted on both ends of the floor, per Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN.

It seems that the Nuggets have identified starting point guard D'Angelo Russell as the team's weakest link among its major rotation players.

Youngmisuk notes that Brown indicated Denver prioritized "making it tough" on Russell defensively and "just going at him" offensively.

"We attacked them, we took D-Lo out the game," Brown said. "That was our goal, to get him involved in everything. He's not the best defender, but he definitely tries. So just try to attack his feet."

“A guy that’s played really well for them was not on the floor in the fourth quarter, D’Angelo Russell,” head coach Michael Malone observed, per

Mike Singer of The Denver Post

. “And that to me is an interesting storyline. Are they going to play him? Are they not going to play him?”

In response, it now appears that the Lakers are considering benching Russell tonight, for the first time after he started all of LA's first 13 playoff games this season, in favor of power forward Rui Hachimura -- meaning Dennis Schröder would become LA's sole starting point guard ahead of Russell.

Russell scored just eight points the entire game, and was benched for the contest's entire fourth quarter in favor of Schröder.

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