The Denver Nuggets are on the verge of eliminating the Los Angeles Lakers from the playoffs for the second consecutive season. They are coming off what many league followers legitimately and sarcastically called the “most competitive sweep ever” by coming closer to defeating the defending champions while remaining so, so far away, making those dire circumstances even worse. LeBron James, Anthony Davis and company took another twofold digit lead on Thursday night before Denver took unlimited authority in the last part, denoting the third consecutive round of the series Los Angeles went up by 10 or more focuses in an eventually losing exertion. OptaStats says that, since 2003, 90 teams have had double-digit advantages in the first three playoff games. Los Angeles is the only one in each of them to fall. Notwithstanding their propensity for building large leads against Denver, reality has obviously set in for the purple-and-gold in wake of Game 3. Rui Hachimura revealed the most significant difference between the Lakers and Nuggets that drives the latter’s dominance as they faced a do-or-die matchup with the defending champions on Friday at Crypto.com Arena: experience playing together. We clearly need to improve something. Obviously, we’ve been attempting. We’ve been watching a great deal of film of them, we’re changing various inclusions what not,” he said, per Los Angeles beat essayist Michael Corvo of ClutchPoints. However, I believe we lack sufficient team experience. Additionally, we discussed it in the film. They have been together for about five years and are a team. They have played together for the majority of games or other events over the past two years in that starting lineup. Clearly they have more insight. We’re up 20, we’re up 10, they’re up 20, they’re up 10 — they’re a similar group. All of that is very consistent with them. On the podium following Game 3, Nikola Jokic expressed a similar opinion regarding Denver’s obvious advantage in on-court cohesion and chemistry. The Pieces have been playing extensively a similar style of b-ball unpleasantly since Jokic made his mark as an establishment player in the last part of the 2010s. He and Jamal Murray have been their here and there court foundations as long as necessary. In 2020-21, the same season Denver made a last-minute trade for Aaron Gordon, Michael Porter Jr. established himself as Denver’s third option. In the summer of 2022, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope arrived via trade. It’s not only that the Pieces’ center augments individual qualities and mitigates individual shortcomings. There’s not a more added substance hostile player in b-ball than Jokic, while Gordon and Caldwell-Pope are essentially custom to protectively set up Jokic, Murray and Doorman. However, fitness alone is not enough to consistently win at the highest levels of basketball. Jokic realizes it requires numerous long stretches of investment on the floor together, as well. “In reality, first was me and Gary Harris, then, at that point, me and Jamal. We had the gathering when Jameer Nelson was here with Wilson Chandler. You, most importantly, need to figure out how to play,” he said of the Chunks’ supported congruity after Game 3, per Harrison Wind of DNVR. “You get the center, then we add [Michael Watchman Jr.], then, at that point, we add [Aaron Gordon], then we add [Kentavious Caldwell-Pope] — simply adding players that know how to play and realize that where will generally be. After that, it will take you somewhere between two and three years of playing together before you will understand your teammates. You will somewhat peruse his means, how he will go, assuming he go left hand, in the event that he go right hand. I assume I understand what all they will do in specific spots on the floor.” Despite James and Davis’s best moments and stretches, Jokic has been easily the best player in this series. Through the first three games, Denver has won the non-Jokic minutes by one, virtually guaranteeing defeat for any opponent. In addition to Porter, Gordon, and Caldwell-Pope providing significantly more than Austin Reaves, Hachimura, and D’Angelo Russell, the Nuggets’ young, inexperienced bench has significantly outperformed the Lakers’ reserves. Those variables, honestly, increasingly pose a threat than the dynamic raised freely by both Hachimura and Jokic with regards to the Lakers’ general battles against the Pieces. Los Angeles, on the verge of being swept for the second year in a row, has been utterly powerless to defeat Denver because of a stark difference in continuity and unity.