LOS ANGELES — Things move fast in the NBA playoffs, so to help you stay on top of things, from now through at least the end of the second round, we will have nightly takeaways from the postseason action.
Did the Lakers learn something they can repeat?
The Los Angeles Lakers finally beat the Denver Nuggets in a playoff game.
Through the lens of history, this may ultimately be viewed as a moral victory that only postponed the inevitable, but in the NBA playoffs a win is a win. The Lakers will gladly take it.
The question is, was this win a one-off, or is it something the Lakers can repeat?
What the Lakers did earn a victory was not some tactical innovation that changed the series, they just executed their game plan better and for a full 48 minutes.
While the Lakers did add a few tactical wrinkles — such as stealing a little something from Denver with LeBron cutting to the rim out of the corner/dunker’s spot when the Nuggets doubled in the paint, leading to easy dunks — the win was more a consistent effort. There was no third or fourth quarter lapse, those 5-12 minute stretches where the Lakers seem to zone out and Denver takes command.
“In the past, they’ve really taken advantage of their little 7-0, 8-0 runs and those turn into 12-2 or whatever,” Austin Reaves said. “Tonight, we, kept them from kind of getting that and more.”
A consistent effort is undoubtedly something the Lakers can do again. Will they?
The other thing the Lakers got was more help from their role players. For much of this series, LeBron and Anthony Davis played fantastically but, at best, one other player would step up. Saturday night, both Reaves and D’Angelo Russell stepped up with 21 points and “kept the scoreboard moving,” borrowing a Darvin Ham phrase. That left LeBron with less of a load to carry during the first 36 minutes, so in the final 12 he could take over, score 14 and make plays like this.
LBJ STEAL ➡️ LBJ HAMMER 🔨
— NBA (@NBA) April 28, 2024
Lakers looking to get on the board in Round 1 👀
They have a 10-point lead with 91 seconds remaining on ABC 🍿 pic.twitter.com/j1R12f6e9D
Can the Lakers’ role players step up again? Yes. Will they? TBD. The Lakers’ lack of consistency is one reason they were the No. 7 seed this season and had to come out of the play-in.
The Lakers understand what they need to do Monday in Denver, where that team’s role players will likely step up with better games.
“The only opportunity for us is to win the next game and we’ve given ourselves some life, give, ourselves a little lifeline,” LeBron said. “It’s a one game series for us. So Monday’s game is the most important every season for us.”
The Lakers understand what they have to do to have a chance. Can they execute it?
Donovan Mitchell has to be better. He knows it.
Teams eyeing Donovan Mitchell as a potential trade target this summer hope to add the kind of elite scorer who can push a roster from good to title contender. They are eyeing a guy they think can step up in big moments.
The Cavaliers need that Donovan Mitchell and he didn’t show up in the second half Saturday. After scoring 18 points in the first half against Orlando, Mitchell went scoreless in the second half, the entire Cavaliers team went ice cold at the same time, the Magic went on a 33-5 run and the game was over. If Donovan Mitchell wants to be THAT GUY then he has to step up in moments like the second half of this game and put the team on his back.
Mitchell knows it, too. Here’s his postgame quote, via Joe Varden of The Athletic.
“I have to be better … it’s simple,” Mitchell said... “Those games we’ve lost, I haven’t been myself. … As much of the success I get, I deserve the criticism, too, and I hold myself to that. My teammates probably hate that I’m saying it, but it’s just a fact. I can’t have 18 points in the first half and zero in the second, on four shots.”
If the Cavaliers lose to Orlando in the second round, will Mitchell be back? If he doesn’t sign the max extension the Cavaliers will offer him this summer, they will be forced to trade him (Cleveland couldn’t let him walk for nothing). If Mitchell is frustrated after a Cavaliers early exit he could want out. Or, Cleveland’s management could look at two straight years of ugly playoff exits and think it has to make significant changes.
A win in this series eases those concerns. However, to get that win the Cavaliers need the Donovan Mitchell they thought they were trading for. The guy who steps up in big moments.
No Lillard or Antetokounmpo for Bucks in Game 4? Yikes.
Not having Giannis Antetokounmpo available for Milwaukee’s first-round series against Indiana has shown just how old and slow this roster looks. Indiana is running right past the Bucks in this series. The only thing keeping the Bucks in games (or winning one) is brilliant scoring from Damian Lillard and Khris Middleton.
Now it is official: the Bucks will play Game 4 without Lillard (Achilles strain) or Antetokounmpo (calf strain) for Game 4. This game is a near must-win for the Bucks, who will go down 1-3 with a loss in that one.
It’s bad luck for the Bucks — no team in this playoffs was going to look the same without its best player, let alone its best two. But the lack of those stars puts a spotlight on questions about how the rest of the roster was built out and got so old.
Nothing much has gone right this season in Milwaukee — outside of all the early season moves getting Antetokounmpo to sign his extension — and some hard questions should be coming with an early exit.
