Lakers News: Hall Of Fame Hater Claims Nuggets Are LA's "Daddy," Will Win Easily
They were handily swept by Denver in the Western Conference Finals last season. Do the Lakers have a shot at revenge this year?
The 2023-24 vintage of the Los Angeles Lakers is, in a lot of ways, an improvement over the 2022-23 model. Yes, the team doesn't have a reserve point guard as good as Dennis Schroder was last year, but it effectively has two players, Spencer Dinwiddie and Gabe Vincent, who together can replicate what he brought to the table. And yes, Jarred Vanderbilt remains out indefinitely with a foot injury, while the team's main healthy backup center this year is Jaxson Hayes, who remains fairly raw.
But the team's starting five has looked considerably stronger this season together, thanks to some extended health and the improved play of D'Angelo Russell, Rui Hachimura, and a much healthier Anthony Davis. LeBron James and Austin Reaves have both been just as good as they were at the end of the 2022-23 season. This LA squad really seemed capable of making a long run through the Western Conference... until it beat the New Orleans Pelicans in its play-in game on Tuesday and set itself up for a rematch against the reigning champion Denver Nuggets.
Denver, led by likely MVP Nikola Jokic, is heavily favored to win the series, having swept Los Angeles in the Western Conference Finals last spring. Can a strong Los Angeles club, missing some key bench pieces, pull off the improbable?
One famous hater sure doesn't think so.
Speaking recently on Fox Sports 1's "Undisputed," 10-time All-Star small forward Paul Pierce, a Boston Celtics Hall of Fame legend whose Celtics split their two NBA Finals meetings with the Lakers, 1-1, during his playing career, continued his post-playing trend of dismissing the Lakers, citing a big opening line favoring the Nuggets in Saturday's opening night meeting (LA is a +7.5 point underdog, per The Action Network).
"I don't know what's up with all this Laker optimism," Pierce said. "I know you have confidence in LeBron and AD... You don't see a line like +7.5 for nothing, which is probably the biggest line in the opening game of the playoffs that we're going to see this weekend. Nothing's going to change. Denver's the Lakers' daddy. They've won eight in a row [against LA], and they're going to continue to win in Game 1."
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