Kentavious Caldwell-Pope Can’t Believe The Lakers Didn’t Beat The Nuggets: ‘We Was Down Every Game’

In 2023, en route to their first championship as a franchise, the Denver Nuggets looked like a juggernaut in the playoffs. Their starting lineup was a buzzsaw, mowing down the opposition with their crisp execution and seemingly unflappable resolve, particularly down the stretch of games. Their bench, led by Bruce Brown, was able to tread water in non-Nikola Jokic minutes, which was more than enough to support the dominance of their starting and closing units.

This past postseason, there was something different about the way Denver looked. Their starting lineup, unchanged from the year before, wasn’t dominating in the same way. Jokic, coming off his third MVP season, was still great but wasn’t shooting the ball very well, and Jamal Murray, coming back from injury, struggled to find a consistent rhythm. With their two stars not at their best, the Nuggets were more vulnerable and, ultimately, collapsed in the fourth quarter of Game 7 against the Minnesota Timberwolves in the second round.

That they were ever even in that position was fairly remarkable to begin with, as they trailed in all five games of the first round against the Lakers, and got blown out of the water in the first two games at home against the Wolves. As Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who left Denver for Orlando this summer in free agency, explained to Draymond Green recently, even the Nuggets were shocked to have made it that far, saying the Lakers should have beaten them because they had “no gas.”

As KCP notes, the Nuggets made an aggressive late season push for the No. 1 seed, as homecourt advantage has meant more in Denver than any other NBA arena. However, coming off a championship run the year before, expending that much effort in March and April left the Nuggets gassed and they just didn’t have their legs for a repeat run. It’s also very funny how quickly and strongly Draymond Green agrees with KCP saying the Lakers should’ve won that series. Alas, the Lakers did not and then went into this offseason and promptly have done…nothing. The Nuggets, meanwhile, have also gotten worse by losing KCP and adding just Dario Saric and Russell Westbrook to the roster.