Lakers open camp with paying back the Nuggets on their minds

Hey everyone, it’s Dan Woike. Welcome back to the Lakers’ newsletter, our free, weekly check-in with the team that goes directly into your mailbox for your digital consumption.

The Lakers had media day on Monday (sadly, unlike Father’s Day or Mother’s Day, there were no presents in my household), and they opened camp on Tuesday, setting the stage for preseason games on Saturday and Monday to really get things going.

Things have been drama-free inside the building with this team, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing to say. In fact, a new rivalry might just be bubbling.

Check it out:

They get it, Denver won

It doesn’t take much to get the content machine churning.

Speaking with Spectrum SportsNet on Monday, Anthony Davis echoed a sentiment Darvin Ham shared with reporters Marc Stein and Chris Haynes over the summer. They heard how hard Denver celebrated.

“It was just a lot of like, the talking, the Lakers dad,” Davis told Spectrum. “We get it. Y’all won. Me and ‘Bron had some conversations like, ‘We can’t wait.’”

Denver coach Michael Malone, who played the ‘no one respects us” card throughout their four-game sweep against the Lakers, was introduced as “the Lakers daddy” by Denver broadcaster Vic Lombardi at the Nuggets’ championship parade.

“This s— ain’t over,” Ham said on the #thisleague UNCUT podcast. “God bless his soul.”

Austin Reaves said Tuesday that, of course, he felt the Nuggets celebration was targeted somewhat at the Lakers.

“I think everybody knows it was pointed at us. They can do it indirectly if they want, but I think it was very obvious to the public eye,” Reaves said. “That’s why everybody was talking about it. Yeah, you see stuff. Me personally, I try my best to stay off of social media and not look at all that stuff. To me, I go play every game the way I’m going to go play the first game against them. But I think it adds a little bit of motivation to go play really well. That’s really it.”

Lakers forward Anthony Davis, left, and Nuggets center Nikola Jokic share some words after Denver eliminated L.A. from the playoffs last season.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

It’s mostly harmless — and totally expected. Denver got to slay a dragon it hadn’t conquered in the Lakers, and now the Lakers can get excited about trying to extract some measure of revenge this year. So it goes.

Yet the rumblings — and the reactions on social media — make me wonder just where Denver fits on the Lakers’ current rivalry ladder, so I took a poll of exactly one voter, me, to figure it out.

5. Memphis

Even with Dillion Brooks gone, bad feelings from the first-round series last year, Ja Morant and his dad going at it with Shannon Sharpe courtside in L.A., and good old-fashioned big city vs. little city hard feelings fuel this bear-poking good time.

4. Golden State

Could be higher, especially with Chris Paul now in the mix. The geography, last year’s postseason, LeBron vs. Steph — it’s all here.

3. Clippers

They share a city and for one more season they share a building. People still gripe about the Clippers covering the Lakers’ banners for their home games. And the Clippers can’t stop beating the Lakers. Those games should be fun this season.

2. Denver

Congrats to the champs, who moved up the list by sweeping the Lakers, with their fans riding a wave through the offseason fueled by euphoria from winning and venom from all the TV time spent on the Lakers.

1. Boston

The Celtics beating the Lakers in the Finals was so traumatic for Hollywood to relive that they canceled “Winning Time” after they aired it. (Note, the second season of the show was tremendous.)

Keep an eye out

As we enter the new season, be sure to look to this space for all the ways we’ll be covering the team this year with an expanded video/audio presence. Exciting stuff is on the horizon.

Song of the week

“Apply Some Pressure” by Maximo Park

A total jam from 2005 that’s found its way into a couple of workout playlists for me this summer. “I like to wait to see how things turn out if you apply some pressure,” is a fitting line for this Lakers team, which fought from behind for most of last season. This season, expectations are back. And with it comes pressure.

In case you missed it

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Hernández: Something’s different about Anthony Davis. Is he finally ready to be LeBron’s successor?

Lakers open training camp focused and free of drama

Lakers’ Christian Wood is ‘motivated’ to disprove ‘false narratives’

Plaschke: The Lakers’ most improved player is … Rob Pelinka? Give that man his flowers!

Lakers name two starters, and LeBron James ‘is preparing for 21 like he’s a rookie’