Lakers stars can’t get the Nuggets out of their heads
Oct 2, 2023, 5:31 PM | Updated: Oct 3, 2023, 12:30 pm
DENVER—Anthony Davis’ summer started when he wide-open watched LeBron James force a layup against the Aaron Gordon and Jamal Murray, finishing the Los Angeles Lakers off—swept by the eventual champion Denver Nuggets.
It was the Nuggets first sweep ever, their first trip to the NBA Finals and soon the team’s first title. All the while Denver was happy to be known as the Lakers daddies. The talking Nuggets head coach Michael Malone did leading up to, during and after beating L.A. in the Western Conference Finals has led to a summer of back and forths with James, Davis, Darvin Ham and the Lakers. And the NBA is happy to play into the budding drama, making Denver’s ring night and season-opener against the Lakers. And Davis seemingly started and finished his offseason by thinking about Denver.
“KCP is my guy, I congratulated him,” Davis said. It was just a lot of the talking the Lakers da—it was just so much of it going on, we get it y’all won but Bron and I had some conversations where it was like, we can’t wait.”
Safe to say LeBron and AD are motivated to face the Nuggets after all their trash talk 😈
“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].” pic.twitter.com/qr8iZGIwll
— Lakers All Day Everyday (@LADEig) October 2, 2023
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, a former Laker said of the matchups between the two teams on Monday, “It’s going to be a great competition, I’m looking forward to it—accepting a ring and getting a dub at the same time.”
Earlier this offseason the Lakers coach, Ham, was on a podcast and got caught in this conversation.
“Chris Haynes: Mike Malone did a lot of celebrating…
Ham: Oh, wow. You’re gonna bring up Money Mike, man? The Lakers’ Daddy? That’s what they call him now? The Lakers’ Daddy?
Haynes: I guess you can talk when you win a championship.
Ham: God bless his soul. This s*** ain’t over. God bless his soul.”
Meanwhile, James, who used to play for Malone and his father sent a cryptic IG post from France about the coach.
Many are saying the Lakers won the offseason, bringing back their key pieces and adding some cheap depth but given they lost in four-straight to the Nuggets, they have a lot of work to do in catching up.
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