STEPHEN A. Smith sent a clear message to Los Angles Lakers icon LeBron James, who will have a tough task ahead of him in the 2023-24 NBA playoffs.
The 56-year-old fiery personality appeared on First Take and shared his opinion on what 39-year-old LeBron should do in their first-round matchup against the defending champion Denver Nuggets.
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The Lakers have lost eight straight games against the Nuggets.
Four of them came in last season’s Western Conference Finals.
Big star Nikola Jokic and the Nuggets won the NBA Finals.
Smith talked about the dominance Denver had in Los Angeles.
He argued that James needs to “make things personal” when facing the Nuggets.
Stephen A. said Denver is the “giant” of the NBA.
The sports media star believes Los Angeles has what it takes to defeat the Nuggets in the series.
But for that to happen, Smith thinks LeBron and the Lakers need to be more aggressive to end Denver’s dominance.
“Nothing else worked. Staying calm didn’t work. Being level-headed didn’t work. The normal procedures that work against everyone else didn’t work for me against this particular team, the Denver Nuggets,” he said.
Stephen A. also cited recent cases in which the Nuggets ruined celebrations of the Lakers’ achievements.
This season, Denver beat Los Angeles when the Lakers held a ceremony to unveil the Kobe Bryant statue.
And the Nuggets won when James scored 40,000 career points.
Los Angeles recorded 47 wins in the regular season, while the Nuggets recorded 57 wins.
The Lakers entered the playoffs after defeating the New Orleans Pelicans in the play-in tournament earlier this week.
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James scored 23 points, nine rebounds and nine assists in the Lakers’ 110-106 victory.
Los Angeles comes into the first round clash on a high note, having won 12 of their last 15 matches.
Meanwhile, Denver has won 11 of its last 15 games.
In the 2023 season, Jokic averaged 26.4 points per game, in addition to averaging 12.4 rebounds and nine assists.
He is among the favorites to win the MVP Award.
Jokic has already won two MVP awards in his career.
This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
