Rui Hachimura gets brutally honest on what Lakers lack vs Nuggets

Nikola Jokic points to Nuggets’ experience as ultimate trump card

Nikola Jokic shared a similar sentiment concerning Denver’s obvious advantage in on-court cohesion and chemistry on the postgame podium after Game 3.

The Nuggets have been playing broadly the same style of basketball offensively since Jokic came into his own as a franchise player in the late 2010s. He and Jamal Murray have been their on and off-court cornerstones for the duration of that stretch. Michael Porter Jr. cemented himself as Denver’s third option in 2020-21, the same season Denver pushed its chips in for Aaron Gordon at the trade deadline. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope arrived via trade in summer 2022.

It’s not just that the Nuggets’ core maximizes individual strengths and mitigates individual weaknesses. There’s not a more additive offensive player in basketball than Jokic, while Gordon and Caldwell-Pope are basically tailor made to prop up Jokic, Murray and Porter defensively. But fit isn’t enough to win at the highest levels of basketball consistently. Jokic knows it takes multiple years of time on the floor together, too.

“Actually, first was me and Gary Harris, then me and Jamal. We had the group when Jameer Nelson was here with Wilson Chandler. First of all, you need to learn how to play,” he said of the Nuggets’ sustained continuity after Game 3, per Harrison Wind of DNVR. “You get the core, then we add [Michael Porter Jr.], then we add [Aaron Gordon], then we add [Kentavious Caldwell-Pope]—just adding players that know how to play and know where to be. Then you need to experience like two, three years together just to learn how to play with each other, then you’re gonna learn your teammates. You’re gonna kinda read his steps, how he’s gonna go, if he go left hand, if he go right hand. I think I know what all they’re gonna do in certain spots on the floor.”

Jokic has been easily the best player in this series despite standout moments and stretches from James and Davis. Denver has won the non-Jokic minutes by one through the first three games, a virtually guaranteed death-knell for any opponent. The Nuggets’ supporting cast has sorely outplayed the Lakers’, with not just Porter, Gordon and Caldwell-Pope providing far more than Austin Reaves, Hachimura and D’Angelo Russell, but also their young, inexperienced bench making a much bigger impact than Los Angeles’ reserves.

Those factors, to be clear, loom larger than the dynamic raised independently by both Hachimura and Jokic in terms of the Lakers’ general struggles against the Nuggets. But a stark difference in continuity and togetherness could very well be the reason Los Angeles has been truly helpless to beat Denver, on verge of getting swept for the second year in a row.