Bruce Brown: Minnesota was tougher than the Lakers in 2023 NBA playoffs

Former Nuggets player Bruce Brown seemed to throw shade at the Lakers when talking about which team was their toughest matchup in 2023.

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The Denver Nuggets won it all this past season by getting past the Minnesota Timberwolves in five games, outlasting the Phoenix Suns in six games and then sweeping the Los Angeles Lakers to reach the NBA Finals. There, they had an easy time with the Miami Heat, defeating them in five games.

Some feel the Nuggets had too easy a time in winning the world championship, especially since the Lakers weren’t able to put up much of a fight.

Bruce Brown, who was a key contributor for Denver, even said that their toughest opponent in the postseason was the Timberwolves, a team that won just 42 regular-season games. He even seemed to say L.A. posed no challenge.

Via Lakers Daily:

“I would say our toughest series was … Minnesota,” Brown said.

“It never felt like we were gonna lose any game,” he said of the Lakers series. “Even when they went on they little run, like Austin Reaves was hitting 3s, it never felt like, ‘Oh, we about to lose.’”

Even though L.A. got swept by the Nuggets, at least a few of the games in that series were competitive and could’ve gone either way. In the end, the Nuggets had been together longer, and that was likely what pushed them over the top against LeBron James and crew.