Guys in the Nuggets locker room may have lives outside of basketball, but the Grading The Week team?
No chance. No lives whatsoever. We wake up in a triangle offense. We pick and roll until lunchtime, baby.
But we’ll also admit that Jamal Murray’s comments during a roller-coaster week that saw Denver stomp the Lakers in Los Angeles and then come home and give up 265 points — yeah, yeah it was only 145, but it felt like more — to the Knicks got us … well, thinking.
Which is always dangerous.
“It’s a long season,” the Nuggets guard said after New York went wild at Ball Arena. “Guys have lives outside of basketball. We just beat L.A. in L.A. We’ve got some guys that live in L.A. And like I said, I just don’t think the focus was there, from everybody. And that’s what happens when you don’t have focus.”
Look, GTW always appreciates Murray’s candor, especially following a defeat. In fact, the Blue Arrow’s postgame pressers on the heels of a loss are often more insightful than after a victory.
The “focus” question is concerning, given the key veteran locker room departures in recent years. And the “lives outside basketball” comment is a bit of a cringe moment, too.
But let’s dribble back to the premise. Is La La Land a problem? Is there such a thing as a Los Angeles hangover for Murray and the Nuggets during the regular season?
Because Denver’s at the Clippers on Sunday night, only to follow THAT one up with a home game on Tuesday against … the Pacific-leading Warriors. Turn up with another SoCal Hangover, and you might get run out of your own building again.
Nuggets’ Laker hangovers — C.
Only the cats with the calculators in the GTW offices aren’t entirely sure that the SoCal Hangover is a real, you know, thing.
Since the fall of 2020, the Nuggets have made 17 trips to Los Angeles to face either the Lakers or the Clippers. They’ve got a 10-7 record in the game immediately following said tilt against either of the Los Angeles squads.
Although …
While L.A. and the whole “lives outside basketball” thing might not be a problem, the Lakers could be. The Nuggets are 7-2 in the regular season over their last nine opportunities in the game following a Clippers road test, but … just 3-5 in their last eight regular-season contests that have come on the heels of a Lakers showdown at Crypto.com Arena.
And 0-3 in those last three next-game-up situations after a visit to 1111 South Figueroa St.
SoCal Hangover? Not a prob.
Lakers Hangover? Kinda getting there.
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Although the Nuggets will be fine, right? Right? (Looks around the room nervously.) The computers still think so: Statnik Kenneth Massey as of Saturday morning had Denver on track to win 47 games and land a 5 seed in the postseason; TeamRanking.com’s projections put that victory total at 49 and a 6 seed in the West.
Not home-court-advantage great. But fine. (More nervous looks.) Right?
Told you we don’t have lives.
DU soccer adding to golden ’24 for Pios — A
Belated high-fives to the Pios’ men’s soccer squad, which made its third-ever trip to the NCAA Round of 16 on Saturday afternoon. As a No. 3 seed, DU hosted Indiana (14), with the winner taking over either No. 11 Virginia or UMass-Amherst this upcoming weekend.
The hits keep coming on Asbury Avenue. In September, Pios men’s soccer became the third DU squad to achieve a No. 1 ranking in its respective sport since March, joining men’s lacrosse and, of course, men’s hockey.
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