The Los Angeles Lakers have dethroned the defending NBA Champions. Los Angeles defeated the Golden State Warriors in six games in their Western Conference semifinal series to advance to the Western Conference Finals. There they will be facing off against the Denver Nuggets, who also won their series against the Phoenix Suns in six games.
After dealing with MVP Stephen Curry, the Lakers are now going to have their hands full going up against another MVP in Nikola Jokic. Jokic has shown everyone why he deserved to be a three-time MVP with some truly dominating performances this postseason.
He is a walking-triple double, averaging 30.7 points, 12.8 rebounds and 9.7 assists in 37.8 minutes per game. Stopping him has proven virtually impossible as he makes it look so easy, making 54.9 percent of his shot attempts, 47.5 percent of his 3-point attempts and 78.7 percent of his free throws.
All eyes will be on the matchup between Jokic and Anthony Davis, who will likely get first crack at trying to slow him down. Davis has been playing at a very high level this postseason as well, making for must-see TV every night.
NBA NEWS & PLAYOFFS: Nikola Jokic, Denver Nuggets & Los Angeles Lakers Updates
If Davis cannot contain Jokic, Lakers head coach Darvin Ham will have to come up with another game plan to try and slow him down. He does have something up his sleeve to slow down the two-time MVP should Davis not be able to do it.
That is certainly a bold plan for Ham, who is putting everything on the table to try and slow down Jokic. On the court, he could rely a little more on Jarred Vanderbilt this series after he was not very impactful against the Warriors.
NBA NEWS & PLAYOFFS: Nikola Jokic, Denver Nuggets & Los Angeles Lakers Updates
Slowing down Jokic is virtually impossible; Los Angeles can only hope to contain him. They will have to pick their poison on a nightly basis about what they want to turn him into. Do the Lakers have a better chance of winning by turning Jokic into a scorer or as a playmaker getting his teammates involved?
Los Angeles is going to have to change up their plan of attack from the regular season as it didn’t slow Jokic down at all. He averaged 23.3 points, 12.3 rebounds and 9.8 assists per game in four contests against the purple and gold during the regular season.
NBA NEWS & PLAYOFFS: Nikola Jokic, Denver Nuggets & Los Angeles Lakers Updates
Davis played in 2.5 of those games, getting hurt in the third one. But, this Lakers team is much different than any version the Nuggets saw during the regular season as they are coming together at the right time.
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