Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports
Former Denver Nuggets head coach George Karl took a shot at the Los Angeles Lakers following Denver’s loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 7 of the second round of the playoffs on Sunday.
Denver has knocked the Lakers out of the playoffs in each of the last two seasons, winning eight of the nine playoff games between the two franchises. This season, it took Denver five games to knock out Los Angeles – the No. 7 seed in the West – in the first round.
While Lakers fans may be happy to see Denver fail to defend its NBA title this season, it still doesn’t completely take away the sting from coming up short in the playoffs in each of the last two seasons.
However, Los Angeles has a chance to switch things up in the offseason after it fired head coach Darvin Ham. The Lakers not only will have a new leader, but there’s a chance they could make some moves to tweak their roster around Anthony Davis and LeBron James.
James can opt out of his deal to become a free agent this coming offseason, but the Lakers are operating as if he will return to the franchise.
Denver may also need to change some things this offseason after a shocking loss in Game 7 against Minnesota.
The Nuggets led by as many as 20 points on Sunday, but they struggled to score in the second half and ended up losing by eight.
MVP Nikola Jokic was great, scoring 34 points while grabbing 19 rebounds and dishing out seven assists, but he and Jamal Murray (35 points) were the only Nuggets to score in double figures in the loss.
Denver’s bench took a major blow this past offseason when Bruce Brown left the franchise in free agency, and it’s possible Denver needs to address its depth this coming offseason to make another run at the NBA Finals.
It’s very on brand that Karl is trolling and looking to poke fun at the Lakers, as Los Angeles knocked his Nuggets team out of the playoffs in the Western Conference Finals during the 2008-09 season.
Kobe Bryant and the Lakers went on to win the title that season, and Karl did not make it past the first round of the playoffs again in his coaching career.
The Lakers would love to make a major playoff run next season to prove Karl and any other doubters wrong about the state of their franchise.
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