LeBron James Gets Brutally Honest About Lakers’ Denver Nuggets Matchup

LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers will face off against the Denver Nuggets this week in the opening round of the 2024 NBA Playoffs.

Last season, L.A. and Denver faced off in the Western Conference Finals – with the latter side earning a clean sweep. In the aftermath, they went on to win an NBA championship.

A lot of bad blood exists between these two teams dating back to last season. The Nuggets talked a lot of smack about beating the Lakers, and Nikola Jokic’s brothers event went so far as to bully Jack Nicholson.

This week LeBron James spoke to the media and gave his brutally honest assessment on his squad’s opening round matchup. He doesn’t think the Nuggets’ dominance over the Lakers in the last few Games they have played means anything.

“I think you’re putting a little bit too much emphasis on it,” James said.

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“This is our first-round matchup. I mean, we’re looking forward to the postseason. But I haven’t been, like, looking forward to the rematch. The game is played how it’s being played, and this is the matchup. So we’re looking forward to that challenge.”

When pressed on whether this showdown with Denver was in any way personal, James made the case that it wasn’t.

“It shouldn’t be personal at all,” he replied.

“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. I’m kind of the last person you should [ask that] — I just stay even-keeled.

“I’ve been in the postseason way too long in my career to know that you don’t get too high off of Game 1 or get too high over whoever the matchup is. You got to just stay even-keeled.”

Will the Lakers be able to shock the world and beat the Nuggets in the first round of the 2024 NBA Playoffs? An answer one way or the other is coming over the next few weeks.

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Carlos Garcia

A longtime Sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB Games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.