The thing about the Nuggets as cham­pi­ons: They nev­er need to say, “We are the best.” Every­body knows it. Con­trast them with the Lak­ers, who are like the kid in high school who gives him­self a nickname.

All the Nuggets do is win. All the Lak­ers do is whine. And the Lak­ers don’t dis­crim­i­nate. LeBron James railed on the replay cen­ter after the Game 2 loss, won­der­ing why they even both­er look­ing at con­test­ed plays. Then Antho­ny Davis ques­tioned his team’s game plan, leav­ing coach Darvin Ham say­ing the two would have to agree to dis­agree. And I haven’t even men­tioned D’Angelo Rus­sell eat­ing and appear­ing to check his cell phone dur­ing a fourth-quar­ter time­out in the Game 3 defeat.

It should make us all savor the Nuggets more. They delight in crush­ing dreams. They offer a dai­ly reminder of what can hap­pen when nobody cares who gets the cred­it. It should always start with Niko­la Jokic. But his self­less­ness, instead, defines this team. Guys know their roles, so they don’t have to slow their rolls.

This entire series has been an indict­ment of the Lak­ers’ bench, of a lack­ing sup­port­ing cast when Davis gets into foul trou­ble or LeBron runs out of gas. The Nuggets, mean­while, keep over­com­ing 10-point deficits with­out Jamal Mur­ray sim­mer­ing because Michael Porter Jr. keeps hit­ting shots and Aaron Gor­don remains one of the league’s most under­rat­ed play­ers.

Time to put the Lak­ers out of their mis­ery. I thought it would take five games. For­get call­ing the Nuggets the Lak­ers’ Dad­dy, just call Den­ver the Legion of Broom.

The Rock­ies line­up is poor­ly con­struct­ed. The team doesn’t walk, strikes out too much and has less pow­er than a moped. The Rock­ies enter the week­end hav­ing trailed in their first 26 games, a streak topped only by the 1910 St. Louis Browns. …

Atlanta tak­ing quar­ter­back Michael Penix Jr. is dif­fi­cult to rec­on­cile. The Fal­cons guar­an­teed Kirk Cousins $100 mil­lion in March, then draft­ed his replace­ment in April. You like that? I can assure you, Cousins did not. …

The Ori­oles option­ing baseball’s top prospect Jack­son Hol­l­i­day to Triple‑A is a reminder that hit­ting a base­ball is the hard­est thing to do in sports. Hol­l­i­day, 20, had two hits in 34 at-bats with 18 strike­outs. The Ori­oles are going for it this sea­son, pre­vent­ing them from show­ing patience. Hol­l­i­day will fig­ure it out, but we will not see him again until July. …

At what point does Kevin Durant’s lega­cy get dinged by play­off fail­ures? Durant is a walk­ing buck­et. But his chance to go down as a top-10 play­er of all time van­ished when he went to Brook­lyn and Phoenix instead of stay­ing with Gold­en State. …

Antho­ny Edwards might be the NBA’s most dynam­ic play­er. Edwards vs. Mur­ray and Gob­ert vs. Jokic? Yes please. …

A Char­lotte restau­rant with a sense of humor fea­tured a sign that read “Please Let the GM and Coach Pick This Year.” It was a shot at Pan­thers own­er David Tep­per, who over­ruled his foot­ball staff and select­ed Bryce Young last year instead of C.J. Stroud. Tep­per went to the restau­rant to fig­ure out who was respon­si­ble for the sign. No need to won­der why the Pan­thers are a mess.

Mail Time

Is there any pos­si­bil­i­ty of Zach Wil­son being trad­ed for a draft choice? The Bron­cos could eat his salary, which would be far bet­ter than the Rock­ies deal for Nolan Arenado.
— Robert Emmer­ling, via Twitter 

Wil­son is old­er than Bo Nix by six months and is enter­ing his fourth NFL sea­son. He still has upside. The Bron­cos will let this play out and see who makes the team between Wil­son and Jar­rett Stid­ham. The Bron­cos can save $5 mil­lion in cap space if they cut Stid­ham, leav­ing him vul­ner­a­ble in train­ing camp.

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