DeAndre Jordan says the Nuggets are prepared to face the new-look Lakers twice before the 2024-25 regular season ends.

Over the past few years, the Denver Nuggets have been a major obstacle for the Los Angeles Lakers in their championship pursuit and whenever they’ve tried to build momentum. Though they won the 2023 championship by beating the Miami Heat, the franchise took more pride in proclaiming themselves as the ‘Lakers’ Daddy’ during their championship celebrations.

Then, in the 2024 first-round series, the Nuggets took great pride in eliminating the Purple and Gold. This led to growing speculation about whether Denver has started to genuinely enjoy having the upper hand in this budding rivalry.

While players from both teams have consistently downplayed any personal satisfaction from this matchup, DeAndre Jordan recently admitted how frustrating it feels to lose to the Lakers, as they endured that experience last week after a long time.

“When you lose to the Lakers, it’s like your season is over, but obviously they came in with a lot of energy with Luka and the new guys,” Jordan said on the ‘Run It Back’ show. “It was a fun game.”

Jordan on how his Nuggets will be more prepared

Over the past couple of years, the Lakers have always managed to take charge against the Nuggets, but coach Michael Malone’s team has shown the ability to make proper adjustments to always bounce back to win contests. However, in recent memory, the Lakers have played with more boldness than ever before under rookie head coach JJ Redick.

They limited Nikola Jokic to merely seven field-goal attempts with constant double-teams, making him register game-high turnovers. Despite all of the Nuggets’ starters scoring points in double digits, with “The Joker” not being able to control the pace of the game, they struggled to score merely 100 points. The Lakers exposed some unexpected vulnerabilities in the Nuggets’ system despite not having an All-Star-caliber center.

With both teams currently tied for the second seed, Jordan made it certain that his team would be more prepared to face the new-look Lakers. He knew that their two remaining games in the regular season could significantly impact the Western Conference standings.

“We see them two more times,” Jordan added. “We’ll play a lot better.”

Redick’s Lakers will not allow the Nuggets to dominate them

One thing we’ve learned about Redick’s coaching style and his revamped Lakers team is that they play a fearless brand of basketball, embracing physicality without a second thought. And given how Denver has dominated them over the past few seasons, this latest win showed that the Lakers had this matchup circled on their calendar – and will continue to do so, especially when they have made their intent clear about chasing a championship this season.

So, while the one-time All-Star insists that the Nuggets will be ready, the Lakers will be too. Thus, this sets the stage for some thrilling, high-stakes games that no basketball fan would want to miss.