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LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – Having faced JaVale McGee and Dwight Howard sparingly in the second round against the Houston Rockets, focused on the small ball, Los Angeles Lakers coach Frank Vogel acknowledged that he will need to bring his greats to the fold against Nikola. Jokic and the Denver Nuggets in the NBA Western Conference finals.
“‘Joker’ is one of the most unique players in the world, and one of the most unique players to ever play center position in this league,” Vogel said Wednesday. “He can basically hurt you in all ways. He can hurt you on the 3-point line, in the pocket, playing the 4-on-3 game at the post, and obviously with his pass …
“It makes this series a little different – very different actually – in terms of how much we will use our centers. I don’t want to go into too much detail, but obviously we are going to be the LA Lakers, which we have been all year. We stick to a one small ball team the last series, but I hope we get back to form. “
McGee and Howard played a combined 23 minutes in the last four games of the conference semifinals, all wins for the Lakers, mind you, when Vogel hit Markieff Morris in span 5 and also called for more possessions with Anthony Davis at center.
But LA’s size was a strength all season, as it led the league in blocks and finished ninth in rebounding. Jokic, averaging 25.4 points on 51.5% shooting, 10.8 rebounds and 6.0 assists in the playoffs so far, is the kind of foe the Lakers will be trying hard to face in the series that begins Friday.
For Howard, who was reluctant to join the team in Florida as he cared for his children and was reeling from the racial disparities the country faces, temporarily losing his spot in the rotation was a challenge. But he did it, along with McGee, becoming two of the greatest cheerleaders in NBA history.
“Energy is very important and if our spirits are down, as they always said, one bad apple can spoil an entire basket,” Howard said Wednesday, speaking to reporters for the first time since mid-July. “If we have little energy, it can be contagious, it can happen to another player, and to another player. We just have to see all the positive aspects despite what we may be going through, there are many people going through things that are much worse and they are not there. here in the bubble, so we can always find a way to stay positive. “
Howard’s 6-year-old son David, who helped him stay optimistic on the bubble, joined his father when the Lakers were allowed to bring his family to the NBA campus. David’s mother, Melissa Ríos, died in March.
But when there are no basketball games to play or cheer on, the monotony sets in.
“There’s really nothing to do,” Howard said. “If I can be honest with you, there is nowhere to go, there is no way to release anything. Whatever feelings you may have, it is like we are stuck. So try to find joy in the fact that I have my Son with me, the fact that all we have to do is win eight games to win a championship.
“So I try to be positive with everything. But it is extremely difficult, to be in a place that I cannot leave, I cannot see family, friends. You are in the hotel. So it is very difficult, to see the Same walls every day. But at the end of the day … I can’t let it get to us too much, but it’s extremely difficult. “
Your team will try to complete the task of getting through two more rounds and coming out of the bubble as champions, making the sacrifices worth it. But even with the Milwaukee Bucks toppled in the East and the Nuggets eliminating the LA Clippers, there is no guaranteed path to the NBA title.
“I think with Denver, they are a great basketball team overall. They play well with each other. They share the rock. Move. Cut. They have great shooters. They have a whole team,” Lakers forward Kyle Kuzma said. . “So we have our hands full.”
And it’s not just the Nuggets, either.
“Any one of these three remaining teams can beat us, and the Denver Nuggets are an excellent basketball team. So are the Boston Celtics, so are the Miami Heat,” Vogel said. “So even though we have players that have been there, we haven’t been there as a group yet. So we’re still very hungry to get the job done, recognizing and respecting the opponents that still remain.”
