![]() Game 7*: Los Angeles Lakers at Denver Nuggets: May 28, 5:30 p.m. ![]() Game 6*: Denver Nuggets at Los Angeles Lakers: May 26, 5:30 p.m. Game 5*: Los Angeles Lakers at Denver Nuggets: May 24, 5:30 p.m. Game 4: Denver Nuggets at Los Angeles Lakers: May 22, 5:30 p.m. Game 3: Denver Nuggets at Los Angeles Lakers: May 20, 5:30 p.m. Game 2: Los Angeles Lakers at Denver Nuggets: May 18, 5:30 p.m. Game 1: Los Angeles Lakers at Denver Nuggets: May 16, 5:30 p.m. With the Western Conference Finals matchup set, the NBA released the full schedule for the series with Game 1 set to take place on Tuesday in Denver. on the perimeter makes for a difficult challenge for the Laker defense. Those two coupled with Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. Finals MVP: Kobe Bryant (32.4 / 5.6 / 7. Jokic serves as the offensive hub for the Nuggets, but they’ve also improved considerably on defense thanks to Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Aaron Gordon. 2009 NBA Western Conference First RoundHornets vs. Denver dispatched the Phoenix Suns in six games behind a masterful series from Nikola Jokic and they will be yet another formidable opponent for Los Angeles. While beating the Warriors is a massive accomplishment, the Lakers aren’t going to have much time to rest as they take on the No. From then on, momentum completely rested with the purple and gold who kept their foot on the gas pedal in the fourth quarter to take the win. The job’s not finished.However, Los Angeles responded in the third quarter as they worked the Golden State defense for quality looks that they were able to convert. For Howard, it would complete the full-circle transformation from the player and person he was in that series to the one he is today.īut he can’t allow himself to think about all that yet. If they can, they’ll put themselves in the same position as Kobe Bryant’s Lakers were when he delivered the legendary line that Howard paraphrased: Looking down a real chance to win a banner for the purple and gold in Orlando. The Lakers are going to have to do something no other team this postseason has done on Saturday and finish them off. While it’s possible that too much has been made of Denver’s almost-mystical ability to overcome 3-1 deficits, what’s definitely real is that they aren’t a team that gives up. “What’s sort of your mentality and what do you think the team mentality is approaching this Game 5?” “Obviously you guys know about Denver’s history with the 3-1 leads and how dangerous they’ve been in that position,” a reporter asked Howard during the session. It wasn’t hard to guess why after one particular question. He didn’t look like he much wanted to be there, and his head seemed to be somewhere else, thinking about something more important. Like Bryant was that night, Howard wasn’t smiling, and didn’t throughout the whole interview. Our own Christian Rivas recently reminisced about that moment, and it was hard not to think about it again while listening to Howard - Bryant’s opponent in that series and a teammate he endlessly clashed with during their time together, now with the Lakers again in the Western Conference Finals - speak after the Lakers’ practice on Friday. “What’s there to be happy about?” Bryant said. Hadn’t he just protected homecourt and given his team a fairly significant lead in the NBA Finals? Noting this, a reporter in the postgame press conference asked him why he wasn’t smiling. The thing was, Bryant didn’t look very happy. After Game 2 of the 2009 NBA Finals, Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers had just won their second game in a row over Dwight Howard and the Orlando Magic, giving them a 2-0 lead and putting them well on their way to capturing Bryant’s fourth NBA championship.
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