Nuggets of history: Denver faces Lakers hurdle anew

The Denver Nuggets have been a revelation in the NBA playoffs. While they have slayed during the regular seasons in the past two years, not a lot were convinced that they are a legitimate title contender.

But the Nuggets – riding on the shoulders of team stars Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray – proved to be made of steelier stuff this season as the Nuggets clawed back from 1-3 series deficits twice to make it to the Western Conference finals. 

The incredible run marked just the third time in the last 4 decades the Nuggets stand 4 wins away from making it to the NBA Finals. 

In the two other times they did, Denver trekked quite a similar path and also faced a familiar foe – the mighty Los Angeles Lakers. 

Broken thumb

In the 1980s, Denver had one of the most exciting teams in the NBA as the Nuggets led the league in scoring 6 times out of the 10 seasons they played under coach Doug Moe. 

Long before Mike D’Antoni populiarized the “7 seconds or less” offensive system, Moe already advocated a run-and-gun brand of basketball which ran almost no plays, relied on ball movement, screens, and cuts, and had his team shoot before the defense could set up.

They had their best season in 1984-1985 when they finished with a 52-30 record to finish first in the Midwest Division. 

Back then, the Nuggets had their own version of a high-scoring All-Star duo in Alex English and Calvin Natt. 

English, who two seasons prior was the NBA scoring champion, averaged 27.9 points while Natt backstopped him with 23.3 points. 

The Nuggets still had Issel serving as the veteran frontline presence plus a future all star, Lafayette “Fat” Lever, to complement English and Natt.

During the playoffs, English proved to be unstoppable, improving his scoring to 30.2 points as the Nuggets defeated the San Antonio Spurs in the first round and the Utah Jazz in the semifinals, which earned the Nuggets the right to face the perennial king of the Western Conference, the Los Angeles Lakers.

In Game 4 with the Lakers up 2-1 in the series, English suffered a right thumb injury which forced him out of the game. The Nuggets lost by just 4 points. 

English was eventually ruled out for Game 5, which the Lakers won to clinch a spot in the finals against the Boston Celtics. 

In an interview in 2006, English looked back on the series and said: “I think that if I had not broken my thumb, we had a chance to beat the Lakers.”

Designed to win

It would take the Nuggets another 24 years to get to the Western Conference finals and they did it with two All-Stars again leading the charge, Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups. 

Billups was acquired just when the season already started when the Nuggets traded Allen Iverson to the Detroit Pistons.

With coach George Karl at the helm, the Nuggets built a well-balanced team featuring the starting lineup of Anthony, Billups, Nene, Kenyon Martin, and JR Smith all averaging in double figures.

 The Nuggets also boasted of a solid backup crew made up of Linas Kleiza, Chris Anderson, Reynaldo Balkman, Dahntay Jones, and Anthony Carter. 

Simply put, the team was designed to win the championship. 

The team finished the regular season by topping the Northwest Division with a 54-28 record, the highest in the franchise’s NBA history. 

The Nuggets maintained their sharp form in the playoffs by waylaying the Charlotte Hornets in the first round and the Dallas Mavericks in the semis. 

Both series ended at 4-1 with the Nuggets winning by an average of 16 points per game, the highest margin of victory in NBA history for the first 10 playoff games. 

Waiting for the Nuggets in the conference finals were again the LA Lakers, who struggled through 7 games before disposing of the Houston Rockets in the semis. 

Kobe Bryant and the Lakers – who finished the regular season with a 65-17 record – took care of business on their home floor in Game 1 by winning, 105-103, but the Nuggets bounced back with Anthony firing 34 points in a 106-103 Game 2 victory. 

The two teams would split the next two games in Denver before the Lakers left no doubt who was the better team by prevailing in Games 5 and 6.

Lakers problem

This year, the Nuggets again need to get past the favored Lakers to advance to the NBA Finals for the first time in franchise history.

While they have to contend with the power pairing of LeBron James and Anthony Davis, the Nuggets also had the same Lakers problem in their two previous stints.

The Lakers in 1985 were led by the best player in the NBA not named Larry Bird in Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. 

In 2009, the tandem of Kobe Bryant, largely recognized the best player in the league, and Pau Gasol conspired to foil the Nuggets. 

In those two times, the Lakers defeated the Nuggets in the West finals and went on to win the NBA championship.

It will be interesting to see if it will be a case of third time’s the charm for the Denver Nuggets. Or maybe, this series could be 1985 and 2009 all over again with the upstart Nuggets finding the Lakers just too much to handle. – Rappler.com