How the Los Angeles Lakers and the Denver Nuggets both earned their respective Western Conference Finals spot tells of a story of two teams that took two different paths that brought them to this penultimate challenge.
Their 2019-20 playoff history seems to suggest that the Lakers have been somewhat afflicted with a disconcerting habit of losing the first game of the series before blitzing to a 4-0 win-loss card to wrap up the series and advance.
The Nuggets, on the other hand, seem to always end up in a 3-1 hole; in the quarterfinals against Utah, and the semifinals against the Los Angeles Clippers. But against these difficult odds, Denver managed to turn a potentially tragic situation into something historic and become the first NBA team to overcome a 3-1 series deficit twice in one Playoff season.
Lucky. Gritty. Best when fighting for their lives. Charmed. Loves a Game 7 and excels in it—call it whatever you want, but the third-best team in the West remains in the hunt for the Larry O’Brien trophy.
Both the Lakers and the Nuggets have proven that they are the best in the West when it comes to squeezing the most out of their superstars and role players. The question now is which is the sturdier of the two when it comes to mental toughness. With the Lakers leading the series 2-0, it would be interesting to see how mental toughness becomes a factor in how this series turns out.
It would be easy for the Lakers and their fans to be confident— after all, the team just needs two more wins and they’re headed for the NBA Finals. But I am genuinely curious as to the quality of their confidence right now.
I believe that there is a specific kind of confidence a 2-0 lead gives players, the one that erases any doubt on their ability to win the series, the kind of confidence that makes them feel deserving, destined, and undefeatable. Fed with the right dosage, players become the best versions of themselves, making easy work of completing the task at hand. A team playing with this kind of confidence is difficult to defeat.
But players can also take from a 2-0 series lead a different kind confidence—the one that is shallow, unstable, and quick to fade. This kind of confidence comes from knowing that while a 2-0 lead gives players comfort, it comes with the caveat that this is not big enough a deficit for the opponent to overcome, least of all not for the Denver Nuggets—the feared Demolishers of Deficits.
What kind of confidence every Laker takes from this situation is an important test of their mental fortitude.
Denver players, on the other hand, have their challenges when it comes to mental toughness. Their first and most important challenge is handling mental fatigue. How much fighting spirit is left if you have to battle through a series deficit for the third time? And how much physical strength can sustain your fighting spirit, having played longer and with fewer rest days?
That flawless Anthony Davis catch-and-shoot three-point-shot from the left wing with 02.1 seconds on the clock and Denver leading 103-102 is a real punch in the gut for Denver because after rallying in the second half and showing the offensive cohesion Denver is known to have, Game 2 should have been Denver’s. Instead of an even 1-1 series, Denver battles the Lakers in Game 3 staring at a 2-0 series deficit.
Not everyone has the same level of tolerance when it comes to mental fatigue, and when someone succumbs to it, it becomes contagious, quick to infect those close to breaking point. Mental fatigue can make players resort to finding an easier rationalization of their situation and choose to accept it rather than defy it.
Why do we always fall behind? Maybe this time around we are not the better team. Maybe winning three straight series all come-from-behind is just too grand a fairytale for us. Finishing as the second-best in the West is still a win for us.
Without peak mental toughness, it is easier to be ready to accept defeat than to search for hopeful optimism. It is not on the account of lacking fighting spirit, but maybe because fighting spirit is finite. Have the Denver Nuggets used up theirs?