Alex English remembers his trip to the Western Conference Finals vividly.
It was 1985. The first dot com website was registered, Coca-Cola released Coke, and English and the Denver Nuggets were set to battle the Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Lakers.
Thirty-five years later, the Nuggets are once again facing the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference Finals. Instead of Johnson and Abdul-Jabbar, the Nuggets are going up against LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
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When the 1985 playoffs started, the No. 2 Nuggets were coming off one of their most successful regular seasons in franchise history. With Doug Moe at the helm, the Nuggets led the league in scoring, averaging 120 points per game. Moe’s brand of basketball was fast-paced and brought them to a 52-win season.
“We were more like the Lakers that are playing now,” English told The Athletic. “We had a fast-paced game, we pushed the ball up the floor.”
English’s team’s style of play may resemble the 2019-20 Lakers, but everything else is a reflection of the current Nuggets. You can see the similarities in the way the players speak. The mindset they carry. The way the series was framed.
Back in 1985, the Lakers were NBA champion favorites. And the Nuggets were the underdogs. Sound familiar?
“We were not counted on to get to the Western Conference Finals that year,” English said. “We knew we were the underdog and we just loved being the underdog because we would prove people wrong.”
The Nuggets had already proved people wrong through the first two series of the playoffs that year. First, they knocked off the San Antonio Spurs 3-2 in a best-of-five series. Next, they took down the Utah Jazz 4-1.
That’s when they ran into the top-ranked Lakers.
Denver players weren’t scared of Los Angeles. They weren’t intimidated by the star power of Johnson and Abdul-Jabbar. That was hardly the Nuggets’ first time playing them that season. In fact, the Nuggets had handed the Lakers one of their five home losses in the regular season.
“We knew what their talent was,” English said. “We knew they were strong, but we also felt we were strong. We weren’t in awe of them. We were ready to prove that we deserve to be here like they did.”
This year’s Nuggets have projected the same message. After overcoming two 3-1 deficits, the Nuggets have earned their stripes, earned the right to be competing for a spot in the NBA Finals.
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“We’ve always felt that we were good enough, no one else does,” Nuggets head coach Michael Malone said during their second-round matchup against the Clippers. “But we don’t listen to the noise. We’ve always had this internal belief in ourselves and our collective group that we’re good enough to win a championship.”
English knew that the 1985 season was his squad’s best chance of cracking the NBA Finals. It was his ninth year in the league, and while he had played on good teams before, he knew this squad was something special.
He played alongside Fat Lever and Calvin Natt. Every member of the team knew his role. There was a balance and camaraderie throughout the roster that just made the time feel right.
But it wasn’t so easy.
The Lakers routed the Nuggets in Game 1, 139-122. English can’t say it surprised him. The Lakers were the best team in the league and playing at The Forum — the best home-court advantage in the league.
“After that first game, we went back and we practiced and we said, ‘OK. we know we can beat these guys. We’ve beat them before.’ We knew what we could do. So we were very focused. We talked with each other, we knew what we had to do. We weren’t demoralized, we just knew we had to come out, play hard, play well.”
The Nuggets stunned the Lakers in Game 2, winning 136-114. The series was even coming back to Denver.
When the team got back to its home state, the Nuggets hosted a team barbecue. It allowed the team to refocus on Game 3, while not overthinking the remaining stretch of the series.
The Nuggets were confident heading into the third game. They thought it would be their opportunity to take the lead in the series. They would have their home crowd and use their up-pace tempo to run the Lakers ragged in Denver’s altitude.
It ended with much different results. Denver dropped Game 3 by 20.
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Refocus on Game 4. That’s what they needed to do. Like the current Nuggets squad, this team was not going to lose confidence over the losses. At the same time, the players wanted to do everything they could do to avoid being down 3-1.
At that point, the Nuggets were riddled with injuries. Lever, Natt and Mike Evans all had knee injuries. Dan Issel had a bruised thigh. Wayne Cooper suffered a rib injury. Then, in Game 4, English fractured his thumb in the third quarter.
He was up to 28 points at that point when Abdul-Jabbar shook himself free from English’s grasp as they were establishing rebounding position, injuring English in the process.
English underwent surgery at Rose Hospital later that night but was ruled out for the remainder of the season. That’s when the mindset of the Nuggets shifted.
“We understood as players that each one of us had a job to do,” English said. “And each one of us was very important to our success. My job was to score. When you took out the points that I scored, the leadership we had with Fat at the point guard, the players were still going to give their best effort even though our best players were down, and they did. I think after that, they understood the chances of winning were slim.”
Watching the playoffs this year, English is struck by the similarities he sees between the current Nuggets and his 1985 Nuggets. Yeah, the pace at which these Nuggets play with is almost entirely different from the speed he and his teammates had. But, just like his group, English knows this Denver team is something special.
If there is going to be a Nuggets team to make it to the Finals, it’s going to be this one.
But like English’s team, the Nuggets are facing an uphill battle. Not the injuries the 1985 Nuggets faced, but are now forced to overcome a 2-1 deficit to make it out of the conference finals.
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But just as English’s team didn’t give up hope after he went down with an injury, he’s confident this team will maintain the confidence and fight it has shown throughout the postseason so far.
“We got this team that’s been in the way,” English said. “But I’ve been hoping and got this feeling maybe this can be the year we get past that team. It’s a huge task, but very possible. I think with the strength of this team and the talent of this team, it’s very possible.”
(Photo: Focus on Sport / Getty Images)
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