Coming into the 2024 NBA playoffs you couldn’t find a single person who doubted a top 5 finish in the playoffs for the Lakers if not a run to the finals, but the events of the first round have thrown many upsets including the exit of one of the favorites for the championship. The first round of playoffs had the Lakers face off against the reigning champions, the Nuggets.

Last year the Lakers were demolished by the Nuggets but this year LeBron is putting on some of the best stats of any player ever in his 21st season and the team all-around looks better. This seemed to be reflected in the first 2 games of the series with very close games but some cracks began to show in the second game when they had a 20-point lead eviscerated in 10 minutes by a Nuggets offense that decided to not only play well for the first time that night but to perfectly.

The Nuggets then took another game in the series before the Lakers came back with their first win in the series. Tensions were high going into the 5th game of the series with the Nuggets being able to close the series while the Lakers had momentum off of their first win. Sadly, the Nuggets took a convincing win and won the series 4-1. This was surprising, going into the playoffs many thought that we saw a new Lakers team only for them to buckle under pressure, and with many thinking that LeBron either wants to leave the team or retire, this may be the last we see of the Lakers in the playoffs for a while.