Darvin Ham challenges Nuggets, which could come back to haunt Lakers

Last night, the Los Angeles Lakers narrowly defeated the New Orleans Pelicans by a final score of 110-106.

With the win, the Lakers officially secured seed No. 7 in the Western Conference. Their first test will be a date with the defending champion Denver Nuggets, who knocked them out in the Western Conference Finals last summer, pulling off a four-game sweep.

The Lakers will certainly have their work cut out for them in the first round, but they seem confident as they prepare for a rematch.

However, coach Darvin Ham may have poked the bear with his latest postgame speech.

"We want all the smoke and we ain't ducking no fades," said Ham. "We'll enjoy this one tonight, take tomorrow off, then we'll go from there."

Lakers coach tempts fate with postgame speech

This is certainly a bold strategy by Ham.

While the Lakers should have confidence going into this series, it is important to remember how things ended last summer. Los Angeles was completely overmatched by Nikola Jokic and the Nuggets, who again pulled off a resounding four-game sweep to end their season.

It might be a bit risky for Ham to say that the Lakers want all the smoke. They could be playing with fire, and as the old saying goes, if you play with fire, you're bound to get burned.

The Lakers likely learned a lot from their series loss to the Nuggets, but it's obvious that the Nuggets are a team that cannot be taken for granted. The Lakers will also be heavy underdogs as the No. 7 seed facing a Nuggets team that earned seed No. 2 in the West.

It's clear that the Lakers are a confident bunch and are ready to go against the Nuggets. But Ham saying that the Lakers "want all the smoke" could be dangerous and end up backfiring on them.

Game 1 of the series will take place on Saturday Night at Ball Arena in Denver. Tip-off is at 8:30 p.m. Eastern Time. The Lakers will be hungry to overcome the odds and shock the Nuggets in the first round as payback for last year's Western Conference Finals.