In the closing seconds of the third quarter in Game 1 of the 2023 Western Conference finals between the Denver Nuggets and Los Angeles Lakers, Nikola Jokić galloped up the floor, gesturing to Bruce Brown Jr. to come up for a screen or dribble hand-off.

But Brown retreated to the right corner, leaving Jokić seemingly out of options. The Nuggets’ big man took a giant dribble backward and launched a 28-foot fadeaway over the outstretched arm of Anthony Davis. He had no other choice.

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As Jokić’s circus shot swished, Davis backpedaled and smiled in disbelief. Jokić looked back at him and tilted his head, as if to shrug.

“As a team, when you have that momentum going, that camaraderie and he hits some ridiculous shot, then it sort of digs into that, right?” said Lakers guard Max Christie, who watched all but 57 seconds of the series from the sideline.

Jokić’s shot set the tone for the series. The Lakers made their adjustments – deploying Rui Hachimura and LeBron James as primary defenders on Jokić, playing Jarred Vanderbilt and D’Angelo Russell less in favor of Dennis Schröder and Hachimura – but nothing worked for a sustained period. No matter what the Lakers threw at the Nuggets, Denver had the answer. And in many cases, it was a dispiriting Jokić or Jamal Murray moonball, the type of shot that deflates even the best defenses.

The Nuggets-Lakers series was closer than the average sweep. The series margin was a combined 24 points, and three of the four games were within five points with five minutes or less remaining. The Lakers believe all four were winnable.

“We were in all those games,” Lakers guard Austin Reaves said. “We had opportunities we just didn’t capitalize on.”

The Nuggets were able to navigate any problem that arose in each second half and fourth quarter. The Lakers couldn’t. After months of rewatching film and analyzing what they could’ve done differently, the Lakers have tried to figure out why that happened.

“I think them having more, not experience in the grand scheme of things, but them being together longer,” Reaves said. “Just being well structured late in games. Like when we go like two or three possessions where we don’t score, they hardly did that. They might go one or two. And then they would get exactly what they wanted.”

The Lakers’ struggles in the fourth quarters and second halves, particularly offensively, informed the team’s approach to the offseason. They had three objectives in building their roster out from their series loss: establish continuity by retaining most of their free agents, improve their late-game execution and add more 3-point shooting around Davis and James.

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The Lakers are confident they took steps to accomplish all three goals by extending Davis and Vanderbilt, re-signing Reaves, Hachimura and Russell and adding shooters like Gabe Vincent, Taurean Prince and Christian Wood. The results were encouraging in the preseason.

“We made some good additions,” Reaves said of the Lakers’ offseason. “With the (3-point) shooting, I think shooting helps against any opponent. So as long as we’re able to knock down shots, put more points up on the board, then we’ll be good. And then the same thing defensively. I think we got a lot of good defensive guys as well. We’ve seen (Jokić) for four straight games last year. So we kind of know how to prepare for him a little bit more.”

It’s no surprise the Lakers and Nuggets are matched up on opening night Tuesday at Ball Arena. After meeting twice over the past four conference finals with the same stars (James and Davis; Jokić and Murray), including a contentious 2023 series with trash talk that spilled over into the summer and preseason, Lakers-Nuggets has a chance to become the NBA’s latest notable rivalry.

“We’re looking forward to ring night, for sure,” Reaves said.

From the beginning of the conference finals, it was apparent that the national storylines focused more on the Lakers, the league’s glamor franchise, than the Nuggets, a small-market upstart. The difference in how the organizations were covered and discussed led to immediate friction, especially once it was clear that the Nuggets, the top seed with the sport’s best player, were the better team.

After the Lakers successfully deployed Hachimura on Jokić in the fourth quarter of Game 1 to help spark a near-comeback, the adjustment became the main talking point on social media and national sports shows. So it seemed, to the Nuggets at least.

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“This is the first time I’ve ever been in a series up 1-0 and the series is over in everybody’s eyes because they put Rui Hachimura on Nikola Jokić for six possessions,” Nuggets head coach Michael Malone said after Game 1.

Following Denver’s fourth-quarter comeback to win Game 2, Malone doubled down on his prior assertion.

“You win Game 1 of the playoffs and all everybody talked about was the Lakers,” Malone said after the second game. “Let’s be honest. That was the national narrative. … No one talked about (how) Nikola (Jokić) just had a historic performance. … The narrative wasn’t about the Nuggets. The narrative wasn’t about Nikola. The narrative was about the Lakers and their adjustments. So you put that in your pipe, you smoke it and you come back. And you know what? We’re going to go up 2-0.”

Eventually, matters began to escalate. In between Malone’s comments, Brown jabbed at Russell, saying the Nuggets’ goal was “just going at him” – a public callout NBA players rarely issue to an opposing player unless there is personal animosity.

“We attacked them, we took DLo out of the game,” Brown said. “That was our goal, to get him involved in everything. … He’s not the best defender, but he definitely tries. So just try to attack his feet.”

The chirping only continued from there. The day before the Nuggets’ championship parade, Malone mocked James’ comments about contemplating retirement.

“Speaking of the Lakers, I just want you guys to know – this is breaking news – I’m thinking about retiring,” Malone said on “The Pat McAfee Show.” “So don’t tell anybody.”

"I'm thinking about retiring" 😂😂😂

Michael Malone #PMSLive

— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) June 14, 2023

At the parade, Malone was introduced as “the Lakers’ daddy.” A few days later, Brown, who would eventually sign with the Indiana Pacers as a free agent, said on the “Run Your Race” podcast that James “ran out of gas” and was “done” and “burnt out” in the second half of Game 4. (James scored 40 points in Game 4, though 31 came in the first half.)

"I knew we were going to get Game 3… I thought they would get Game 4 just off of they're down 3-0 and they're going to play way harder, but Bron ran out of gas. Like he had 30 in the first half… he was going to have to score 60. He was done… He was burnt out."

Bruce Brown…

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) July 18, 2023

James seemingly addressed Malone in an Instagram post in June, although he didn’t acknowledge his former assistant coach by name.

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“I hear I’m on your mind that much, huh??? I mean I guess I see why … Enjoy your light but just know I’m the SUN,” James posted.

A few weeks later, Lakers coach Darvin Ham also responded to Malone’s comments during an interview on the “This League Uncut” podcast. “This s— ain’t over,” he promised.

The summer trash-talking resurfaced during the beginning of training camp when Lakers players were asked about the Denver series and the subsequent chatter.

“It was just a lot of talking,” Davis said in an interview with Spectrum SportsNet on Media Day. “All the ‘Lakers (Daddy)’. There was just so much of that going on it was like, ‘All right, we get it, y’all won.’ But me and Bron had some conversations like, ‘We can’t wait (to play them again).'”

Reaves, who said “you see stuff,” didn’t hide his dismay.

“I think everybody knows it was pointed at us,” Reaves said. “They can do it indirectly if they want, but I think it was very obvious to the public eye. That’s why everybody was talking about it.”

Just days before the opening-night matchup, Denver shooting guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who played with the Lakers from 2017 to 2021 and was a vital part of Los Angeles’ 2020 title team before being traded to Washington in the Russell Westbrook deal, said the Nuggets “had to give (the Lakers) that butt-whipping” in a SiriusXM NBA Radio interview.

“We had to give them that butt whipping”.

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope talks about the fun rivalry with his former Laker teammates.

Hear more from Nuggets camp: @nuggets | @NBA | @SiriusXMSports | @CaldwellPope

— SiriusXM NBA Radio (@SiriusXMNBA) October 22, 2023

When asked about the Nuggets’ comments, Lakers players brushed them off, refusing to engage. Publicly, they’re ready to move forward with opening night and the rest of the season.

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“I really don’t care,” Reaves said. “They beat us. How I was raised, if you win, you can say whatever you want. We lost and they had fun with it. And as they should. I mean, if I was in their position, I probably would have done the same thing.”

Christie added: “I think it’s just some banter, really. They won the championship. They’re in a good mood, obviously, as they should be. … If anything, it just adds more fuel to the fire.”

Ham put it bluntly on Monday.

“It is what it is, man,” Ham said. “I don’t get caught up in that crap.”

Ask a Laker for their lasting memory from the series and you will get many different answers.

For James, it was how Denver’s continuity and connectivity translated into key moments.

“They were able to close out quarters at times better than us,” James said. “They were able to hit more timely shots than we were. They went on runs and they were the better team, obviously.”

For Ham, it’s the beginning of Game 3, when Murray took over with 17 first-quarter points and 30 in the first half as Jokić dealt with foul trouble.

“The explosion that Jamal Murray had,” Ham said. “We were doing some things with Jokić and he was having a slow night, but Jamal Murray just picked up all that slack and just caught fire. … That always sticks out.”

For Reaves, it’s the blown opportunities in Games 2 and 3, in particular.

“(Game) 2 was a very winnable game,” Reaves said. “And then even (Game) 3, we were playing well, and they just had a tough stretch in the late third, early fourth to where they got like a 10-point lead and we couldn’t claw back from that.”

Christie can close his eyes and still see the intricacies of the Murray-Jokić pick-and-roll.

“Those two just played really, really well,” he said.

While the answers vary in specificity, they have a common thread: Denver’s crunchtime offense.

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In contrast, the Lakers struggled in those key moments. There were three games in the series that were within five points over the final five minutes: Games 1, 2 and 4. In those segments of the game, the Lakers scored just 68.4 points per 100 possessions, a jaw-droppingly awful figure. Their defensive rating of 112.0 over that stretch was respectable, especially considering the opponent. But they just couldn’t score themselves to keep up.

Those stretches constitute a small sample size of only 11 minutes, but the playoffs are built on small sample sizes. The Nuggets outscored the Lakers 28-13 in those 11 minutes. That was the series.

“It wasn’t much,” Christie said. “It was all close games. It just came down to the wire, and they just happened to make more shots.”

Internally, the Lakers are confident that their offseason tune-up will help them better match up with Denver if the two meet again in a playoff series. That includes Davis returning to his 2019-20 shooting ways, with the preseason indicating he’s on the right track. (After all, the biggest shot of his career was a game-winning 3-pointer against the Nuggets in the 2020 playoffs.)

“I think just expanding the way we can shoot the 3 is really the main thing,” Reaves said. “We went to the Western Conference finals and never really shot the ball well. So if you could add that, it just makes everything else easier. We can get to Bron-AD pick-and-rolls when we’re shooting the ball well and where that’s highly effective. … We have guys that can just really shoot the ball. So you have to pick your poison of what you want to give up.”

The Nuggets picked their poison in the conference finals by largely ignoring their shooters – even leaving Reaves, at times – to load up the paint against James and Davis. Tuesday’s matchup provides Los Angeles with its first real opportunity to put its offseason plan into action against their primary West foe in a hostile road environment.

When the NBA schedule was officially released on Aug. 17, there were a few dates that Reaves immediately scanned to find.

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Opening night. The first few games. Christmas. 

“I was happy to see Denver as the first game,” Reaves said.

At the same time, Reaves isn’t ready to say that Lakers-Nuggets is a rivalry, at least not yet.

“I personally don’t feel that way,” Reaves said. “I can’t speak for everybody else. But not me. If you want to speak about it that way, my rivalry is everybody. I want to win against everybody. That’s where I stand. I’m a super competitor. And regardless of who we’re playing, if it’s Denver, Miami, or whoever it is, I want to win.”

Though that sentiment might be true for most of the group, the season opener provides the Lakers with a chance to exorcise their playoff demons and send a message to start the season. At the same time, Los Angeles is wary of putting too much pressure on itself to win in Denver. They don’t want to set themselves up for a major letdown if they lose one game out of 82.

“It’s not like, ‘Oh, we win in Denver and now that makes our season, winning at Denver,'” Ham said. “No. That’s the first step in the process of us getting to where we want to get to, back to where we were last year and beyond. And so, all the talk, the chatter, it makes for fun reporting and tweets and whatever the case with you guys. But with us, we just focus on our business. We’re not emotional about it.”

On Saturday, James went as far as to say that he’s no longer motivated by outside noise.

“I don’t get motivated against (who) the opponents (are) pretty much anymore,” James said. “I don’t need it. I don’t want to say I don’t get motivated to play, because I do get motivated to go against the competition, I love competing against the best. But I don’t need an individual or a team to motivate me. I’m self-motivated. I’m enough.”

Nonetheless, most of the group is excited about the rematch.

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“They’re the ones who knocked us out,” Davis said. “Not only knocked us out, but swept us in the Western Conference Finals. So that’s always going to be a thing now for us for this season, to take those matchups a little more personal.”

(Top illustration by Samuel Richardson / The Athletic; photos by Kevin C. Cox and Harry How / Getty Images)

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Nuggets continue Lakers dominance in season opener