"Game is not won in transcripts" - LeBron James commits to ditching ego & sticking to game plan for Nuggets showdown
The LeBron James-led LA Lakers are officially back in the NBA Playoffs after beating the New Orleans Pelicans in the Play-In tournament. Not only does this give the Lakers a chance for another championship run, but it will also add another chapter to the newly reignited rivalry between them and the Denver Nuggets.
LeBron is locked in for the Lakers-Nuggets rematch and he knows what he and his team needs to do to win. Despite going up against their rivals in the upcoming series, the four-time MVP knows that letting it get personal would be a mistake.
LeBron shared these thoughts with the media and here is what he had to say regarding their upcoming rematch with the defending champs.
"You allow yourself to get away from the gameplan if you make it personal," LeBron said. "We have a gameplan, we go out there and execute it and you live with the results."
He shared that this mentality comes with the experience he's gained from playing in the postseason. Afterward, he also took the time to acknowledge the Nuggets' talents.
"They're a great team, we know what they're capable of," LeBron added. "The game is not won in transcripts, the game is won in between the four lines, that's all that matters."
Unlike last year when these two teams faced each other in the Conference Finals, one of them is fated to have a shorter Playoff run. That's because the seventh-seed Lakers will take on the second-seed Denver Nuggets in the opening round, meaning one of them will not get close to the Conference Finals.
LeBron James has only had one first-round Playoff exit in his career
Whether you think it's impressive or not, another crazy LeBron James stat is the fact that he has only been eliminated from the first round of the Playoffs just once. That happened back in 2021 when they took on the Phoenix Suns.
It took the duo of Devin Booker and Chris Paul to put away LeBron James and the LA Lakers but what matters is that so far, they hold the distinction of being the only team in league history to eliminate LeBron James from the first round of the playoffs.
The Nuggets have a chance to do it again this season but they'll have to fight hard in every game to accomplish that.
The Denver Nuggets swept the LA Lakers in their regular season series
LeBron James recognizes that beating the Denver Nuggets in the first round of the Playoffs is no easy feat. After all, Denver has every advantage against them.
Not only did the Nuggets sweep them in last year's Conference Finals, they followed it up by sweeping the LA Lakers once again in their 2023-24 regular season series.
The Nuggets and the Lakers faced each other only three times this season and the defending champs established their dominance over their rivals by winning all three.