People say the Lakers had an easy run to the finals in 2020 yet they faced the top teams and stomped them convincingly while the Nuggets get a lot of praise as one of the GOAT teams and playoff runs of all time even though they faced 3 teams that were seeded 7 or below with the only team above that being a measly 4th seed. Does this have to do with Jokic being more likeable and relatable than LeBron or something?
5 lakers + 3 refs vs. 5 opposing players will get you some doubters about their greatness. No question about their greatness tho, the refs were legendary.
I’ve heard people bring up Jokic as having an all-time playoff run but I haven’t heard anyone talk about the Nuggets as a team having an all-time run or being an all-time team.
As always, I expect there’ll be a lot of hindsight bias to this. People will pick and choose what to care about based on what happens next.
I’m sure IF the Lakers had stayed healthy and IF they’d repeated or come close in 2021, and hadn’t done the Russ trade and gone through the debacle of the 2022 season, people would see the 2020 title as less flukey.
Same will happen with Denver. If they win another title in the 2-3 years with this core, or at least consistently make deep runs and reach the Finals again, nobody will bring up the seeds of their opponents in 2023.
If for whatever reason, they kinda fall apart and never make reach the Finals again, people will see it as a flukey title and bring up their opponent’s seeding more. It is what it is.
Why do you care what other people say about sports champions?
Because hardly anyone cared for the bubble season. Lots of missing players, heavily shortened regular seasons and no fans (i.e. dead atmosphere) didn’t help. If it wasn’t for monetary reasons the whole season should’ve been cancelled
No one even watched it - the ratings were in the toilet.
i hated the 2021 season for this reason (covid had a way way bigger impact on players being out in 2021 than 2020). from a competitive balance standpoint, the 2021 season was one of the most unfair seasons ever, because covid did not impact all teams equally at all. a team literally had to play all of their home games 1,000 miles away in a foreign country.
the bubble was at least fair and equal to everyone and there was not nearly as many players missing from the bubble as there were from the covid protocols and the physical demand of the weird 2021 season.
Gotta say this but, surprisingly few players opted out of the bubble and no major players on contenders.
Lakers is the most famous franchise, naturally, they have the most haters. Just like Man Utd in football.
Except Man Utd isn’t the most famous team. It’s Real Madrid and it’s not close
Who are these “people”? Folks always make a claim that “everyone” has X view - where are you getting this? Is it just people in your life and you extrapolate to everyone? Did you read one reddit thread and now thats “everyone”?
because bubble and long rest which allowed bron and ad to actually be healthy
They were healthy the whole season
The lakers are disliked by nerds on Reddit and lebron haters.
I will honestly admit i like seeing lakers lose.
- Lebrons 3rd attempt at a super team winning a special tournament with unique rules
Vs
- the second round pick, who just got screwed over for MVP, winning one for the team he was drafted on
People enjoy when the lakers lose and don’t like when the lakers win
Bro, do you understand play-offs ?
more wins team plays less wins team.
If a less wins team beats the more wins team, you should be especially afraid of such a team, as they managed to pull it off in a first to win 4 series, while playing more away than home games.
And it all happens after playing 82 games, for extra 16-28 games. Played in a spawn of 6 months.
Who spawned?
Because the B.
When there are players from the 2020 Lakers saying “it felt like practice games and we were all stoned as fuck”, it doesn’t exactly help the perception.
That’s just JR Smith
I think it counts but I just know damn well the lakers fans would dismiss it if the clippers or Celtics won it
The Lakers may have played higher seeded teams but their opponents I think were way worse than the ones the Nuggets faced.
Round one they faced a below .500 blazers team. Which was starting a 35 year old Melo. I would say last years Wolves team was much better than that Blazers team from 2020.
Round two the faced the super small ball Rockets that were starting PJ Tucker at the 5. That was the easiest match up possible for that Lakers team that had 3 7 footers in AD,McGee,Howard and had a ton of size on that team beside those 3. The Rockets got out rebounded by 64 for the series or 13 rebounds per game. That Lakers team was built to crush small team and the Rockets were playing micro ball. I don’t think anyone thought those Rockets were a good team. I think the KD,Booker Suns were better than that years Rockets. Not only did Booker score 40 points on 80% shooting over games 3&4 but they were just a better team overall. Everyone was saying the Suns were going win that series and as soon as the traded for KD they were the favourites out West.
Round 3 the faced a really good Nuggets team that matched up pretty well against them and it was a close series. Were the Nuggets amazing? I don’t think so Jokic was only 24 years old hadn’t one an MVP and Murray was just 22. It was a young Nuggets team that had just comeback from two different 3-1 holes and was gassed. I think this was the only team they faced in the west that not only matched up good against them but also was an actual good team. It’s up to you if you think last years Lakers team was better than this Nuggets team. I think they were probably equal but that’s up to you.
In the Finals they played a Heat team that was missing their leading scorer in Dragic who only played 34 minutes the whole finals and was washed after this year. They were also missing Bam for two games and he was limited when he did come back. The Heats second best player that series was a rookie Tyler Herro. Do I think last years Heat team was better than their 2020 team I do. Not only was Bam fully healthy he was also better that he was in 2020. The Heat’s role players were playing out of their minds up until the finals when the Nuggets did a great job of locking them down.
I think without actually looking at the teams each faced you can say the Lakers played better opponents but when you actually look at the teams each faced I don’t know how you can say that.