Over the last two calendar years and change, the one team the Los Angeles Lakers have seemingly had the most difficulty beating is the Denver Nuggets. During a stretch from January 2023 to November 2024, they lost an incredible 13 out of 14 games to the Nuggets. In fact, when Denver won the 2023 NBA championship after sweeping L.A. in the Western Conference finals that year, the team and its then-coach Michael Malone heavily trolled the Purple and Gold.
Los Angeles may have started to turn the tide by splitting the 2024-25 season series with the Nuggets. Earlier this summer, the Nuggets made a major trade by sending forward Michael Porter Jr. and a 2032 first-round draft pick to the Brooklyn Nets for Cameron Johnson.
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Porter, however, may still be a Nugget at heart. He said on a recent episode of the “Glory Daze Podcast” that the Lakers simply couldn’t guard him, a fact that is hard to dispute.
“‘I used to love those series’ against the Lakers,” Porter Jr. said. “… They always thought they could beat us but they never did. I always had good series against the Lakers. I don’t know what it was but I always cooked the Lakers. I just think that they didn’t really have a guy, a matchup for me that was trying to come off of screens.”
While guard Jamal Murray killed the Lakers as much as anyone else during those playoff series versus Denver in 2023 and 2024, Porter was also a huge problem for them. In that 2024 series, which Denver won in five games, he averaged 22.8 points a game and shot 55.3% from the field and 48.8% from 3-point range. His 6-foot-10 frame makes him a tough cover for anyone, especially when he played in Denver’s offense, which features lots of dribble-handoff actions.
The Lakers now have more firepower than they did during that stretch of ineptitude against the Nuggets. If the two teams meet again in the 2026 postseason, this time they could actually make things competitive.
This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: Michael Porter Jr. throws shade at the Lakers