Los Angeles Lakers ahead LeBron James (23) shoots as Denver Nuggets ahead Peyton Watson (8) and heart Nikola Jokic defend throughout the first half in Recreation 4 of an NBA basketball first-round playoff sequence Saturday, April 27, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Picture/Mark J. Terrill)
LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Lakers lastly cracked the Denver Nuggets’ mastery of this rivalry and prolonged their NBA playoff lives for at the least one other sport.
To completely no one’s shock, LeBron James led the way in which.
James scored 30 factors, Anthony Davis added 25 factors and 23 rebounds, and the Lakers averted postseason elimination with a 119-108 victory over Denver in Recreation 4 of their first-round sequence Saturday evening.
D’Angelo Russell and Austin Reaves scored 21 factors apiece for the seventh-seeded Lakers, who snapped their 11-game shedding streak towards the defending NBA champions with their first win over the Nuggets since December 2022.
Anthony Davis and LeBron James come up HUGE for the @Lakers to drive a Recreation 5!
AD: 25 PTS | 23 REB | 6 AST | 64.7 FG%
LBJ: 30 PTS | 5 REB | 4 AST | 60.9 FG% pic.twitter.com/6yMjhswkI7— NBA (@NBA) April 28, 2024
A sequence with clear patterns and rhythms lastly modified within the Lakers’ favor. For the fourth straight sport, Los Angeles took a double-digit lead earlier than the Nuggets rallied within the second half behind Nikola Jokic.
However for the primary time on this sequence, the Lakers didn’t wilt below the defending champions’ strain. The 39-year-old James scored 14 factors within the fourth quarter on 6-of-8 capturing, once more carrying the Lakers late in his twenty first NBA season.
Recreation 5 is Monday evening in Denver.
READ: NBA Playoffs: LeBron, Lakers dealing with elimination
“We’ve given ourselves one other lifeline, and it’s a one-game sequence for us,” James mentioned. “Monday’s sport is a very powerful sport of the season for us, and we perceive that.”
Denver swept Los Angeles out of the Western Convention finals final season, however the present Lakers responded to this 0-3 deficit with a efficiency extra worthy of a crew that rolled into the postseason with 12 wins in 15 video games.
“We get one other alternative to go play yet another sport, and if we win, come again and play one other one and preserve transferring from there,” Reaves mentioned. “Odds aren’t stacked in our favor, however anytime we will preserve ourselves floating above water and provides ourselves a chance to do one thing particular, we’re up for the problem.”
Jokic had 33 factors, 14 rebounds and 14 assists for his 18th profession triple-double and second on this sequence, however the two-time MVP and his teammates couldn’t reassert their typical late-game dominance over the Lakers.
The Lakers’ 19-point lead with simply over six minutes left dwindled to 113-106 on Jokic’s three-point play with 1:25 to play, however Reaves hit a brief jumper earlier than including 4 free throws within the closing minute.
Denver in the end couldn’t overcome one more gradual offensive begin in a sequence filled with them.
READ: NBA: Nuggets getting ready to sweeping Lakers with Recreation 3 win
“After all we need to (begin sooner), however I realized in horse racing, it’s not the way you begin, it’s the way you end,” Jokic mentioned. “We didn’t end as we speak rather well, so hopefully we will do a greater job. However sure, we need to be up and management the sport, nevertheless it looks as if that didn’t occur to us.”
Michael Porter Jr. had 27 factors and 11 rebounds for Denver, and Jamal Murray scored 22 factors whereas going 0 for 4 on 3-point makes an attempt. Aaron Gordon had simply seven factors for the Nuggets after placing up 29 in Recreation 3 throughout the highest-scoring playoff sport of his profession — however offense wasn’t the Nuggets’ drawback, in keeping with coach Michael Malone.
“The paint (protection) was a joke,” Malone mentioned after his crew allowed a whopping 72 factors within the paint.
“Each huddle, I gave the impression of a damaged document tonight,” Malone added. “Each huddle was, ‘Paint, paint, paint.’ (In) Recreation 3, that they had 70 and we discovered a technique to win. Tonight, that they had 72. That’s an unbelievable quantity. … I simply didn’t assume we had the requisite physicality or urgency. This didn’t look like a closeout sport.”
The second-seeded Nuggets additionally misplaced a closeout sport in final season’s first spherical whereas up 3-0 on Minnesota, however Denver received that sequence in 5 video games and misplaced solely three extra occasions on the way in which to its first title.
Whereas Jokic was prolific and James seized the highlight late, Davis was excellent for the fourth straight sport. His 23 rebounds matched his profession playoff excessive, and he even shared the Lakers’ crew lead with six assists.
“It’s powerful to get swept,” Davis mentioned. “No person desires that feeling, particularly going to the summer season. You’ve acquired to dwell with that feeling for the remainder of the summer season. So we didn’t actually discuss it. We all know what’s at stake. No person desires that feeling in your mouth for the remainder of the summer season. The way in which we performed tonight is the way in which we’ve to play the remainder of the sequence.”
The Lakers confirmed no give up of their dire circumstances in Recreation 4, pounding the ball inside for 44 factors within the paint throughout the first half and taking their fourth halftime lead of the sequence.
The Lakers stretched their benefit to fifteen factors within the third quarter and stored constructing till the ultimate minutes, when Jokic and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope sparked a Nuggets rally.
“They had been actually pushing the tempo,” Jokic mentioned. “That they had open layups. They had been destroying us within the paint. We couldn’t make a shot. They couldn’t make a shot both (at occasions), nevertheless it looks as if that affected our protection loads. That’s an important crew.”
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Reggie Jackson performed 9 minutes for Denver regardless of spraining his ankle within the second half of Recreation 3.
Caleb Williams, the Heisman Trophy-winning former USC quarterback and the No. 1 general decide on this weekend’s NFL draft by the Chicago Bears, watched the sport from courtside.
