LeBron James Weighs In On Lakers-Nuggets Playoff Rematch Narratives

How does King James feel about facing off against LA's 2023 WCF foes?

The Los Angeles Lakers are getting ready to face off against the Denver Nuggets to open the 2024 NBA playoffs in a rematch of last year's Western Conference Finals. Denver swept Los Angeles out of the postseason last year, giving the Lakers plenty of motivation entering this new series.

However, Lakers star LeBron James doesn't want to make things personal with Denver. He knows what it takes to win at the highest level and wants his team to be focusing on one game at a time.

“It shouldn’t be personal at all. I think you allow yourself to get away from the game plan when you make it too personal. We have a game plan. You go out there and execute it and you live with the results,” James said. “… You gotta just stay even-keeled. There’s gonna be a lot of swings throughout the course of the game, throughout the course of a series. And it’s how long you can just keep your mind even-keeled and keep the main thing the main thing.

Facing off against Denver will be a challenge in itself for the Lakers, given that the Nuggets have dominated them in recent meetings. But the Lakers believe in themselves and have been playing well lately, even with all the inconsistency that has taken place this season.

For Los Angeles, they can't get ahead of themselves. They have to take things one step at a time and play a full 48-minute game against this team. The Nuggets aren't going to beat themselves so Los Angeles will need to play almost perfect basketball if they want any chance to dethrone Denver and advance.

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