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At the beginning of the award-winning open-world RPG "Elden Ring", players are met with the first of many ghastly, seemingly invincible enemies: The Grafted Scion, a spider-like creature that scurries around disjointedly using human arms for limbs.
Only this enemy is actually invincible, at least for anyone who has a healthy relationship with soap and water, for the game's first fight is meant to function as a combat tutorial and a warning of things to come. A new player will be lucky to land a hit or two before being defeated, the first of many deaths on a long journey of exploration and suffering.
Seasoned players can return to fight the grafted scion in subsequent playthroughs. With a better grasp on the game mechanics, a more thorough attack plan and upgraded equipment, they can take down the enemy that handed them their first defeat. But killing the grafted scion does not mean surviving the tutorial; even if the player gets the boss's health bar to zero, as soon as they exit the boss arena, a loose set of rocks will collapse, sending them plummeting to their destined death. And the game begins anew.
The Nuggets are the NBA's grafted scion, an amalgamation of the ethos of the early 2010s Spurs, Walton-era Blazers, and 2011 Mavericks, blocking off the championship path for the Lakers, who are stuck in a never-ending basketball tutorial. LeBron James and Anthony Davis, bless them, keep returning with a better grasp on the game mechanics, laser focus and a more thorough attack plan, and they keep falling into the abyss. Even when Los Angeles gets Denver's health bar down to zero, the Lakers realize that the Rockies they have ascended are a façade, and look up to see the Nuggets still seated safely at the peak, above the clouds and far out of the Lakers reach.
As I am sure you have heard, the Lakers have lost 10 straight games against the Nuggets, six of which have come in the postseason, each more excruciating than the last.
They lose and locate obvious, if wishful, ways that they can alter the outcome. D'Angelo Russell was 1-of-9 from three in Game 1; if he shoots better, the Lakers will win. So Russell tied a Lakers franchise record with seven 3s in Game 2, and it wasn't enough. Anthony Davis started the game 14-of-15 from the field, torching Nikola Jokic while leading a collective effort to stifle him on the other end. Not just flirting with perfection, but harassing it. And somehow that wasn't enough. LeBron James drills two backbreaking 3s to put the Lakers up 8 in the last six minutes, and that wasn't enough, either. He needed to make three.
The tragic nature of the Lakers' inevitable demise in this series is that they are winning the main event. James and Davis have matched and exceeded Jokic and Murray's influence on the series in the first two games, but this is a bout being decided by the undercard. Just as last year's matchup was.
LeBron's insane deflection and fast break jam over Murray to put the Lakers up 3 with 1:15 left was about to be another on an infinite list of his iconic postseason moments, but Jokic's pathetic attempt to draw a shooting foul from midcourt somehow resulted in Michael Porter Jr.'s game-tying three. All the Lakers needed was for Austin Reaves to secure the loose ball (or even take the foul on Aaron Gordon as he tip-toed on the baseline) or for Rui Hachimura to prevent the kickout pass to the most dangerous shooter on the floor. They didn't. Against Denver, they never do.
It was, on the heels of LeBron's conversation with JJ Redick about luck in the postseason, an incredibly unlucky break. Porter Jr.'s shot and the chaotic circumstances that led to it were eerily reminiscent of the Robert Horry and Ray Allen moments they recalled on the podcast.
Although Murray's game-winner will be the defining image of Game 2 and the entire series once it is done (just as Davis' Game 2 winner was in 2020), it's hardly a surprise that Gordon and MPJ combined to create what was the game's most important play. Denver has been blowing teams out below the All-Star line for two seasons now, and the Lakers' horribly-constructed roster doesn't hold a candle to the Nuggets' supporting cast.
When you have a superstar who has carried teams to championships the way LeBron has, it can be easy for fans (particularly those waving purple and gold foam fingers) to delude themselves into thinking that a lightly-worn sweater from Goodwill is enough of a wardrobe change to get the team back into title contention. In 2012, the Lakers traded for Ramon Sessions to replace Derek Fisher as the starting point guard, and based on the reaction you would have thought the Chris Paul trade had been approved. Kobe finally had a playmaking point guard to lighten his load. Sessions' spirit lives on in Spencer Dinwiddie and Gabe Vincent, two inconsequential additions of similar ilk.
Actually, maybe I am being too harsh on Sessions. He averaged 13 points a game in the first round against Denver that season. Meanwhile, Dinwiddie and Vincent have not scored a single point in 46 combined minutes in this series.
Denver's secret formula involves compounding the home runs it has hit in the 3-4-5-6 spots of its lineup with its atmospheric advantage. Davis' immaculate start to the game was sullied by the fact that he scored his last points with 7:15 to go in the 3rd quarter. As it turns out, carrying the entire offensive and defensive burden for a team is quite exhausting at altitude. Near the end of his 45th minute in Game 1, Davis had his hands on his knees near Denver's basket as the Nuggets rushed down the court for a transition dunk, a damning indictment not of Davis’ efforts, but of Rob Pelinka’s.
LeBron is carrying a similar load, often taking the task of guarding Jokic himself in addition to his typical creative responsibilities, as a near-40-year-old with more mileage than any other player in the history of the sport. James and Davis are gassed in the second halves of these games, and they don't have any infrastructure around them to prop them up or give them a quarter off. Darvin Ham might as well be playing "Elden Ring" in front of the team during film sessions.
Meanwhile, Murray's 6-of-21 start in Game 2 was forgiven by Porter Jr.'s hot shooting and Gordon's tenacious defense on Davis in the second half, affording him the opportunity to win the game despite a second straight underwhelming offering. James and Davis have delivered spectacular performances in the first two games of this series. They trail 0-2. Should either of them suffer the misfortune of an off shooting night themselves, the Lakers do not have a single player capable of keeping the team afloat until their stars can inflate the life raft.
As it turns out, the Nuggets are far too refined to be compared to a fiendish brute like the scion. Their symbiosis is too delicate, their moveset too scientific. Invincible, seemingly. Ghastly, no.
Indeed, it is the Lakers, with their pair of superstars and a bunch of severed limbs grafted on, who more resemble a cursed monstrosity. Their death is destined.∎
