The Los Angeles Lakers remained unbeaten at home in the NBA Playoffs on Friday night, defeating the Golden State Warriors soundly to advance to the Western Conference Finals. Waiting for the Lakers is the best player in the league on the best team in the league, Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets.
Jokic and the Nuggets have made it look easy thus far in the NBA Playoffs. The team quickly disposed of the Minnesota Timberwolves in the first round and ended the Phoenix Suns in a six-game series where Phoenix never really seemed like it had a chance.
While this is the same team and star player that the Lakers played in their last championship run, the Nuggets will be a much greater challenge to the Lake Show. That being said, there are still things that the Lakers can learn from that 2020 Western Conference Finals matchup to implement in this series.
That includes potentially relying on a role player who has not done anything thus far in the NBA Playoffs to play a huge role in this specific matchup.
Lakers may rely on Mo Bamba to play a huge role vs Denver Nuggets
Mo Bamba has played just 10 total minutes in the postseason thus far exclusively in mop-up duty and he also is dealing with an ankle injury that held him out of the second round vs the Warriors. Bamba is expected to be available for the Western Conference Finals, which bodes well for his chance to play a bigger role.
Bamba’s size is what could earn him a rotation spot against the Nuggets. Playing against Jokic is an entirely different animal than the small Warriors team or driving Grizzlies team that the Lakers have faced thus far. They need bodies to throw at him. To disrupt him. To get him off his game.
We saw Frank Vogel implement this in the 2020 Western Conference Finals with Dwight Howard. After not really playing much in the second round against the Houston Rockets, Howard averaged 20.2 minutes per game against Denver with his sole responsibility to play a physical brand of basketball on Jokic.
Howard used his strength to smother Jokic and make life uncomfortable for him and it worked. In that series, Jokic averaged 21.8 points, 7.2 rebounds and 5.0 assists. Those are still really good numbers but if the Lakers can get him to average those numbers in this series then they will likely end up advancing to the NBA Finals.
Bamba is not quite the physical presence that Howard is but having him available with his size and shot-blocking to literally throw at Jokic, rough him up and pick up a couple of fouls will wear on the two-time MVP in a seven-game series. Then Anthony Davis can pick up the rest and have another historic series against Denver (or so we hope).
If Bamba suffers a setback with his ankle injury then it might end up being Wenyen Gabriel who has this role of roughing up Jokic. Bamba’s floor spacing makes him a more natural fit if healthy, though.
It might seem crazy now but it would have seemed even crazier if we told you Lonnie Walker IV would become a big impact player against the Warriors. Bamba could be this round’s Walker.