The Denver Nuggets don’t believe the Los Angeles Lakers found the secret sauce to stop two-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic and their offense during the second half of Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals despite being outscored 38-34 in the third quarter and 34-26 in the fourth quarter.
The Lakers put Rui Hachimura on Jokic in the fourth quarter and the two-time MVP scored only three points. However, Nuggets head coach Michael Malone fired back at the notion that Los Angeles found something new.
“Much [is being] made of them putting Rui Hachimura on Nikola Jokic,” Malone said on Wednesday. “Like we have never seen that before. There’s this kind of discussion being based [on that] even though the Lakers lost, they’re walking out of here, they think they’ve got something.”
“I’ll bet you every red penny I have that Darvin Ham would rather be up 1-0 than down 0-1,” Malone explained. “So for us to be able to watch film after a win and show all the things that we did poorly is a great situation to be in.”
Jokic put up 34 points, 21 rebounds and 14 assists in Game 1, but he was not effective in the fourth quarter when Hachimura guarded him and Anthony Davis played strong help-side defense. Despite the Lakers almost coming back to win Game 1, though, the Nuggets are confident heading into Game 2.
“As a team, we’ve seen everything there is to see on how teams will try to guard Nikola,” Nuggets small forward Michael Porter Jr. said. “It might have surprised us for a little bit in that late second half, but looking at the film, I don’t think that that’ll be an issue for us.”
“Next thing we know how to counter that when they put AD off ball and AD is roaming a little bit, it opens up some stuff on the backside, so we just got to execute,” Porter explained.
The Nuggets won Game 1 by a final score of 132-126. They are undefeated at home in the 2023 playoffs. Meanwhile, the Lakers haven’t lost two games in a row this postseason. Game 2 figures to be another classic contest at Ball Arena.
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