The Denver Nuggets made NBA history last night when they beat the Los Angeles Clippers in Game 7 of the Western Conference Semifinals. They became the 13th team to come back from a 3-1 deficit in the history of the playoffs and the first to do it twice in the same postseason.
The Nuggets were slightly favored in their first-round matchup vs. the Utah Jazz but were huge underdogs when they had to face Kawhi Leonard and the Clippers. Obviously, they thrive with their backs against the wall and don't care about your betting odds or predictions.
That's why, knowing that they'll once again be big underdogs when they face LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers, star guard Jamal Murray was pretty straight-forward towards the purple-and-gold ahead of their series.
Jamal Murray warns the Los Angeles Lakers ahead of WCF clash
“They gotta worry about us, too," Murray said after Game 7, while All-Star big man Nikola Jokic added that “We’re not gonna go in there and think about them. It’s gonna be a long night for us. We just need to go out there with effort, and having fun. It’s simple for us.”
Most of the attention has been focusing on the Clippers and the fact that they blew three straight double-digits leads when it looked like we were poised for a battle of Los Angeles in the Western Conference Finals.
However, Mike Malone's team deserves a lot of credit for what they've done. They were undermanned to start the playoffs and are still missing Will Barton, his primary scorer in the second unit.
Moreover, the fact that they've been mentally and physically strong to keep up putting a fight night in and night out despite being on the verge of elimination is just admirable. They're not a fluke or a feel-good story, they're for real.
Now, they must finish the job vs. a well-rested Lakers team after back-to-back series of seven games. This team plays like they have nothing to lose and those are the most dangerous kinds of teams, so yeah, the Lakers should definitely be worried.
