All season long, fans of the Los Angeles Lakers have been looking forward to a showdown in the Western Conference Finals with the Los Angeles Clippers.
But thanks to the Denver Nuggets, it won’t happen, as they overcame a 3-1 series deficit to knock the Clippers out of the 2020 NBA Playoffs.
The Lakers’ Kyle Kuzma revealed that perhaps the Clippers were never really on the radar of the Purple and Gold.
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“Do you think your guys’ group derived any pleasure from the way they (the Clippers) went out? It seems like with the Lakers’ fan base there’s a lot of schadenfreude with the Clippers?” Kuzma was asked.
“No, not really, ’cause we’re not focused on the Clippers, and we never really were,” Kuzma responded. “It’s all about who’s in front of you. If you focus on other teams instead of taking care of your food, s— happens like that. So for us we’ve always focused on us and then focused on Portland, focused on Houston, and control what we can control as a team, and now our focus is on Denver.”
In early July, the Lakers became title contenders by completing a trade for superstar big man Anthony Davis after months of anticipation that he would end up in L.A.
At the same time, the Clippers signed free agent superstar Kawhi Leonard and traded a slew of future draft picks for All-Star Paul George.
Instantly, the two L.A. teams were considered by the vast majority of fans and pundits to be the favorites to win the NBA championship.
Instead, the Clippers blew double-digit leads to the Nuggets in three straight games to complete one of the most epic collapses in playoff history.
The series with the Nuggets could still be competitive and entertaining, as Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic have greatly raised their games since the start of the postseason.
