The Los Angeles Lakers beat the New Orleans Pelicans in the NBA Play-In Tournament to set up a blockbuster first-round clash with the Denver Nuggets. Following that win over the Pelicans, Lakers head coach Darvin Ham sent out a warning to the Nuggets.
"We want all the smoke and we ain't ducking no fades," Ham said.
Ham made it clear the Lakers aren't afraid of anybody and are ready to face the toughest challenge of their postseason. This is a rematch of the 2023 Western Conference Finals, in which the Nuggets won 4-0.
The Nuggets then also won all three regular-season meetings between the teams this season. All those losses for the Lakers led to some talk that they should lose to the Pelicans to avoid facing the Nuggets in the first round. When Ham was asked about that, he scoffed at the idea and stated that whoever said it came out of an "insane asylum."
I found that chatter to be absurd as well. Any team that truly believes in itself wouldn't even think of doing something of that sort. The Lakers would have put themselves at serious risk as well of missing the playoffs entirely if they lost to the Pelicans and it was just a crazy suggestion.
Also, the goal for the Lakers is to win a championship, not just have a deep playoff run. To win that title, they would have had to face the Nuggets at some point in this postseason, so trying to avoid them now would be pointless.
You welcome that challenge right away, as Ham has done here. Even if the Lakers do end up losing to the Nuggets, which I believe will happen, they wouldn't have made the wrong decision.
Darvin Ham And Anthony Davis Did Not Forget The Nuggets' Trash Talk After The Series
While getting swept last season would have served as motivation in itself for the Lakers ahead of this series, all the trash talk from the Nuggets has taken things up another notch. While the players didn't have a lot to say, their head coach, Michael Malone, sure had some things to get off his chest.
Malone repeatedly shaded the Lakers following that series, as he was miffed about how his team was disrespected before it. Following all the taunts, a Nuggets broadcaster even went as far as to say that Malone was the Lakers' daddy during the victory parade.
The Lakers heard all that chatter, and in the offseason, Ham took a shot at Malone and stated, "This s— ain’t over." Well, now is his chance to get his counterpart to shut up. There is no doubt who won the coaching battle in that series, and Ham has to find a way to get the better of Malone this time around.
Ham wasn't the only one who wasn't a fan of all that trash talk, as Anthony Davis also sent a warning to the Nuggets.
“It was just a lot of talking. We get it, y’all won, but me and Bron had some conversations... we can’t wait [to play them].”
While Davis and LeBron James couldn't wait to play against the Nuggets, the games, of course, didn't end up playing out the way they imagined. Following those three defeats in the regular season, the Lakers are now just 4-12 against the Nuggets in the last 16 meetings between the teams in the regular season and playoffs. LeBron admitted that the Nuggets have the Lakers' number, and it will be interesting to see if LA can flip the script.
More must-reads: