Key elements from Denver Nuggets – Lakers preseason matchups

The Denver Nuggets and the Los Angeles Lakers played back to back games in NBA preseason.

The Denver Nuggets won both, but that is not saying much as both teams got combined and restricted minutes from their starters, and mixed their squads, trying to find the optimal minutes distribution.

Denver Nuggets

However, the Nuggets have shown enough for me to dissect and breakdown elements in these matches, because they are very important, as this matchup will be fighting for that 6-8th spot in the West, winning around 50 games in the following season, and there is high possibility of a tiebreaker.

First, if there is a single flaw to pick out from these games, its transition defense from Denver. Everyone seems to clog the lane on offense, which is a product of everyone wanting to cut to the basket when Jokic has the ball for example.

When you clog the lane, and you don’t get the offensive rebound, you are in a big problem when team that is packed with athletic talent comes rushing down at the other end.

Second of all, no one seems to care or think when rotating on defense, being transition or half court sets. We saw LeBron, Stephenson and boys getting wide open lanes to the hoop in transition because of Nuggets not setting priorities in transition (player with the ball = priority #1).

Something else that I took out of these games is closing too much on Rajon Rondo when he is in a position to shoot. Okay, he made a couple of threes, but that is not going to happen consistently and he is going to miss much more than he makes, as he is a veteran that has shown he cannot shoot the three consistently.

He is a pass first PG and needs to be addressed as such. You don’t pressure that kind of player, you press the passing lanes and get interceptions.

A matchup that gave me most things to think about is Jokic – McGee. McGee is not a threat on offense, or won’t be come regular season. He is a liability. Still Jokic had a very hard time defending him, as McGee is just so much more athletic.

On the other end, as much as Jokic is good offensively, JaVale McGee seemed to stop him with relative ease by bodying him and making him work for every point. There lies the problem: Jokic goes minus on offense, where McGee stagnates on his offense.

Overall, that is a plus for the Lakers. That is something to be addressed with switching or possibly playing zone, which also helps solve the problem of a passing team such as Lakers (Zo, LeBron, Rondo).

And with Denver still not having a “go to” scorer, there is no consistent pressure on one player to be good. Some nights Nikola Jokic will drop 30+, some nights it will be Paul Millsap, then Jamal Murray, Gary Harris and so on.

All in all, I am giving the slight edge to the Lakers, as when James is playing 35+ minutes, and keeping the pace up, Denver will have a tough time keeping them under 105 ppg.