DENVER —
There are the technical elements of this first-round playoff series, such as the amount the Lakers can get into offensive sets, the right actions at the right times. There’s the defensive assignments, like the decisions to blitz or to drop, to double or to hedge.
It can be complicated.
Or, like LeBron James said in New Orleans, after the rematch with Denver was set, it can be simple.
“We have to play mistake-free basketball,” James said.
Perfection, of course, isn’t possible. But for moments early in the first quarter Saturday night, the Lakers flirted with it.