Kentavious Caldwell-Pope says Nuggets should’ve lost to Lakers

Former Denver Nuggets guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope was on Draymond Green’s podcast that dropped on Wednesday, and made an interesting revelation about the team’s first-round series against the Lakers.

Caldwell-Pope said the Nuggets actually should’ve lost to the Lakers. Denver won the series in five games, but trailed nearly 75 percent of the time and found themselves down by double-digits on multiple occasions.

KCP, who signed with the Orlando Magic this offseason, blames it on the Nuggets going hard for the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference at the end of the regular season. They lost a key game to the lowly Spurs, and instead settled for the No. 2 seed.

Take a look and listen for yourself.

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope on why the Denver Nuggets struggled in the playoffs:

"We had no gas. We felt like the Lakers should have beat us. We was down every game"

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“I feel like that’s where we spent most of our energy and time, trying to get that first place (seed),” Caldwell-Pope said.

It probably didn’t help the Nuggets played until late June the year before, although that was certainly worth it, winning their first NBA title. Still, this season just looked and felt different.

“We get to the playoffs, we had no gas. We felt like the Lakers should’ve beat us, we was down every game.” Caldwell-Pope said. “Taking that energy, using it there, there was a lot that went into that season.”

It’s very hard to go back-to-back in professional sports, and even though Denver did get past Los Angeles, they ultimately fell in Round 2 to the Minnesota Timberwolves. That included blowing a 20-point lead at home in Game 7, in which the Nuggets looked tired.

Caldwell-Pope confirmed that to Green, and added more disappointment to basketball fans in the Mile High City about what could’ve been.

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