With the Clippers eliminated, the Los Angeles Lakers are now deemed NBA title favourite, and they certainly played like champions-to-be on Friday as they beat the Denver Nuggets 126-114 in Game 1 of their conference final matchup.
LeBron James and Anthony Davis got the Lakers to an early start while Rajon Rondo continued his stellar playoff performance with seven points and nine assists in 21 minutes.
Dwight Howard also provided a huge boost coming off from the bench to add 13 points, three rebounds and two blocks after sitting out most of the series against the Houston Rockets.
Davis was undeniable on the night as he managed 37 points on 12-for-21 shooting (12-for-15 from the free-throw line) while adding another 10 rebounds in 32 minutes. James orchestrated the offence all night long, finishing with 15 points, 12 assists, and six rebounds in 30 minutes.
Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray led the Nuggets despite getting caught up in early foul trouble with 21 points each in the loss.
The Nuggets never really got back their rhythm after the first quarter and were outscored 34-21 in the second quarter.
The Lakers will look to take a 2-0 lead in the series in Game 2 on Sunday.
Watch the Game highlights below
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Nuggets coach Michael Malone said leading up to Game 1 that the Nuggets would have to limit the Lakers in transition and keep them out of the paint — they did neither.
The Lakers had it way too easy against the Nuggets with James and Davis meeting little resistance from Denver’s interior defense from the opening whistle up until the Lakers got to 54 points in the paint.
Dwight Howard also consistently got baskets and picked up fouls around the rim as Rondo’s penetration led to open shots from Lakers’ role players. Transition defense was also a problem.
The Lakers was leading all postseason teams with nearly 50 points in the paint and over 23 transition points per game leading up to this game, while the Nuggets entered allowing the fourth-most paint points, and it’s no surprise to see what LeBron and co are trying to do.
“They are the best running team in the NBA, and that gave us some problems in that Clippers series, so we have to get back and make sure we’re not allowing LeBron to go coast to coast and finding their shooters,” Malone had said on Thursday. “The second thing is defending the paint.”
Although, not easy to manage, but the Nuggets have to take a page from their book if they would stand any chance at all in this series.
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