“Still are a helluva lot better”: Lakers continue catching strays from George Karl after ex-team Nuggets beaten at home

The Denver Nuggets faced a humiliating loss against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday. The defending champions suffered a 26-point loss in Game 2 of the Conference Semi-Finals series. If that was not enough, the Nuggets were held to 80 points in the game, their season-low.

Despite that, former Denver coach George Karl did not stop taking shots at the LA Lakers. After a series of comments slamming the Lakers in light of firing head coach Darvin Ham and questioning the validity of their 2020 NBA title, Karl's latest shot at the Lakers came after the Nuggets' loss. Karl took to X (formerly known as Twitter) and wrote:

“Beaten, if not humiliated, in every part of the game - coaching, character, bench and more. But they still are a helluva lot better than the Lakers.”

Karl’s comments against the Lakers after the Game 2 loss are understandable, especially in light of what they had said after the Game 1 loss. Alluding to the Lakers fans chattering around the internet, Karl said that the Purple and Gold would not even be relevant for the next few years.

In the second game of the Semi-Finals series, Denver had one of the worst games in the last two seasons. Despite the absence of Rudy Gobert, the Timberwolves’ defensive leader, the Timberwolves mixed their length with physicality and perhaps took Denver out of the game.

Coach Karl might be right in saying that the Nuggets are better than the Lakers. However, with how the Timberwolves have played against the defending champions, there is a legitimate fear that the Nuggets might face be swept in this series.

What did former Nuggets coach George Karl say about the Lakers after Darvin Ham's firing?

The LA Lakers fired head coach Darvin Ham after the team lost the opening round to the defending champions, the Denver Nuggets. Ham spent two seasons with the Lakers and took the team to the Western Conference Finals last season. However, the highlight of last year’s story was the Nuggets sweeping the Lakers.

The firing raised a lot of eyebrows around the league, from former players and NBA analysts to NBA coaches. George Karl also took to X and slammed the Lakers, calling them an unstable organization. Moreover, he also took a shot at the Lakers’ 2020 NBA title in the Bubble during COVID-19.

“The Lakers will be more successful going fwd when they acknowledge the only championship they won since Phil left doesn’t count and they’ve been unstable for 15 years,” Karl wrote in his tweet.

While saying that the Lakers have been unstable for 15 years would be a stretch, the firing of Coach Ham could still be questioned. NBA analyst Stephen A. Smith slammed the Lakers for scapegoating Ham and blamed the Lakers' front office for putting a bad roster around their two superstars.