Lakers falter once more, on brink of one other playoff sweep to Nuggets

LOS ANGELES — Having simply logged the 285th playoff sport of his profession — clearing the whole Denver Nuggets beginning 5’s mixed 275 — Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James spoke from loads of expertise when he detailed what it takes to thrive within the postseason after Thursday night time’s 112-105 Sport 3 loss.

“You are imagined to have anxiousness and strain — or really feel the strain,” James mentioned after Denver went up 3-0 of their first-round collection, one win away from sweeping L.A. into its summer season for a second straight 12 months. “That is what it is about. That is what the postseason is about.”

With Anthony Davis to his proper, James endorsed his and the Lakers middle’s skill to carry out when the video games matter most. The pair mixed for 59 factors. James completed with 26 factors on 12-for-20 taking pictures, six rebounds and 9 assists, whereas Davis led L.A. with 33 factors on 14-for-23 taking pictures and 15 boards.

He did not say the identical for the remainder of the Lakers, who have been outplayed by a Denver crew that had two gamers, Aaron Gordon and Michael Porter Jr., every prime the 20-point plateau to again stars Nikola Jokic (29 factors, 15 rebounds) and Jamal Murray (22 factors, 9 assists).

Requested if the Lakers have been overwhelmed by the Nuggets’ degree of execution, James mentioned, “You’d must ask the people that query and see how they really feel. It is arduous for me simply to be like, ‘That is what I feel that man feels.’ … I can not try this. I am not a thoughts reader. I do not know.”

Nobody was capable of ask Lakers level guard D’Angelo Russell that query. After going scoreless in Sport 3 on 0-for-7 taking pictures (0-for-6 from 3), he declined to talk to reporters after the sport, in line with a crew spokesperson.

“We have been — me and this man [Davis] have been enjoying collectively for six years,” James continued. “We have been to the mountaintop. We have been near the mountaintop. We have performed lots of video games. We all know what it takes to win. We all know what it takes to win a championship and the way rattling close to good you bought to be. That is not like one thing that is so loopy to acquire.”

It appears considerably not possible for the Lakers towards the Nuggets, nevertheless. They’ve misplaced 11 straight video games towards Denver, the fifth-longest lively streak by any franchise towards a crew. And the 4 groups forward of the Lakers on that listing — Detroit, Houston, Charlotte and Portland — have not been remotely near a championship in recent times.

Denver wasn’t untouchable in Sport 3. L.A. opened with an 8-0 lead, inflicting the Nuggets to name timeout only a minute and 50 seconds after tipoff with the roof able to blow off the constructing from the hometown followers. And identical to the 12-point benefit the Lakers inbuilt Sport 1 and the 20-point lead they’d in Sport 2, they led by as many as 12 on Thursday.

Then got here the third quarter, when Denver outscored them 34-22. The Nuggets have now outscored L.A. by 31 in third quarters by means of three video games; within the 9 different quarters, the Lakers have outscored the Nuggets by 11.

“Our third quarter’s been atrocious,” mentioned guard Austin Reaves, the one Lakers participant to attain in double-digits moreover James and Davis, albeit with 10 of his 22 factors coming late within the fourth quarter after the Nuggets had taken management.

Whereas the sullen expressions of the Lakers’ bench and training employees late within the sport steered this collection is all however over, there may be nonetheless one other dwelling sport for L.A. to host Saturday in Sport 4.

Davis mentioned the Lakers should clear up their rebounding after giving up 19 second-chance factors on 14 offensive rebounds, proceed to get again in transition defensively and put extra factors on the board.

“We bought to attain,” Davis mentioned. “We solely had 20 within the second [quarter], 22 within the third. A crew like that, who’s going to attain, we bought to have the ability to rating as effectively.”

The Lakers are averaging simply 102.3 factors within the collection. L.A. averaged 124.4 factors within the 12 wins it had in its ultimate 15 regular-season video games plus the play-in match main into the Denver collection.

The Nuggets, in the meantime, are staying on excessive alert.

“I feel each sport is more durable and more durable,” Jokic mentioned. “They have been up 20 in Denver; they have been up 12 right this moment within the first half. I feel it is actually arduous to play towards the identical crew over once more. You may’t get uninterested in the fashion of the play or no matter. You simply must preserve doing you, particularly for us — as a result of we received the final three — and simply belief what we’re doing and do not get uninterested in success as a result of it will possibly go improper actually fast.”

Which is all L.A. can hope for at this level — some crack within the Nuggets’ basis the Lakers can discover to increase the season.

“It is one sport at a time, at this level,” James mentioned. “You lose, you go dwelling. So we’re going are available in with the mindset of, ‘Let’s get one.’ Drive a Sport 5 after which we go from there. So so long as you continue to have life, then you definitely at all times have perception. I simply assume you play till the wheels fall off.”

ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne contributed to this report.