Lakers Final Score: Denver Ends LA's Season In Game 4, Sweeping Series
After that Game 3 double digit defeat to the Denver Nuggets, we knew that this was coming for your Los Angeles Lakers to some extent.
But we certainly didn't expect things to end this way.
The Lakers built up a 15-point first half lead against Denver, and saw it all evaporate by the midway point of the third quarter. It was a slugfest the rest of the way, with each club trading blows during a fairly physical matchup.
All-NBA LA small forward LeBron James had a terrific back-against-the-wall opening half, powering the club to its big edge... and yet he also was probably culpable for the Lakers' 113-111 late-game loss.
Keeping things in perspective, the Lakers bucked the odds and recovered from a miserable 2-10 season start to not only make the playoffs, but to reach the Western Conference Finals. Quite a feat for a seventh seed.
The club now heads into an uncertain offseason, where most of its players will reach free agency.
Let's unpack where it all went wrong, shall we?
Things were coming up Milhouse for Los Angeles during the opening quarter. James looked totally reinvigorated, scoring 21 of LA's 34 points in the frame from all over the floor. James shot 7-of-9 from the field, including 4-of-4 from long range, and went 3-of-3 from the foul line. Denver hovered around, chipping in 28 points of its own.
LA was so desperate for help against the Nuggets' size, the team even sent in Tristan Thompson to play non-garbage time minutes (4:29 in the first half)! And this was with Mo Bamba back in the lineup, which as we all knew was going to have a huge impact on Darvin Ham's rotations.
James was similarly en fuego in the second quarter, scoring another 10 points on 4-of-4 shooting. Knowing that this was a win-or-go-home game, the 19-time All-Star played all but 4.2 seconds in the first half. His 31 points in the opening half matched his career high for his most playoff points scored in a half.
Powered by James' great start, LA led Denver by double digits, 73-58, at the break. Rui Hachimura, getting his first start of the playoffs, was the team's only other double digit scorer, chipping in 10 points on 3-of-8 shooting from the floor and 4-of-4 from the charity stripe.
An irritated Nuggets club seemed thoroughly out-of-sorts. They seemed thoroughly flustered by a disparity in foul calls during the first half. To that point, the Lakers went 16-of-17 from the charity stripe, while Denver shot 6-of-6 from the bonus area.
The Lakers were having an excellent half, shooting 55.6% from the floor and turning the ball over just once.
That would mark the last time the Crypto.com Arena home crowd was truly happy.
The uneven murmuring began in earnest at the top of the third quarter. The Nuggets kicked off the third quarter on a 24-8 run to immediately get back into the game, nabbing their first-ever lead in the game on a tough Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and-one play beneath the basket. LA could barely buy a field goal during this spell, shooting just 3-of-12 during the opening minutes of the quarter, compared to a 9-of-20 start for Denver.
Los Angeles missed out on collecting oodles of defensive rebounds in this stretch. Although Anthony Davis was having a terrible shooting night, he remained a tough defensive presence in and around the paint:
When the dust had settled, the Nuggets had outscored the Lakers 36-16 in the period, and accordingly led LA 94-89 heading into the fourth.
Acting fast, the Lakers went on a 5-0 run to knot the contest up early in the final frame. LA point guard D'Angelo Russell, who had been demoted to a reserve role in favor of Dennis Schröder, tied the game with a 13-foot elbow jumper.
As the game wound down, both teams fought valiantly, with James doing what he could to muster up some big defensive moments:
Things rapidly fell apart late.
With Los Angeles trailing by just a possession and under a minute left, a clearly-exhausted LeBron James started doing what he's done at the ends of games throughout this series when he gets tired: forcing up ill-advised jumpers:
The Lakers avoided disaster on the other end of the floor, playing stifling defense to keep the contest within their grasp. Los Angeles snagged a critical defensive rebound and instantly called a timeout. They advanced the ball, and this is the genius play they came up with:
And that was that. Denver won, 113-111.
There's a very, very real possibility that, had it not been for these two insane gaffes in the contest's waning seconds courtesy of the team's leader, LA would have staved off elimination, at least for one night.
Playing a whopping 47:56 of 48 minutes, James turned in a mostly-great night, scoring 40 points on 15-of-25 shooting from the floor (4-of-7 from three-point land), pulling down 10 rebounds, dishing out nine assists, and swiping two steals. He also played terrific, fully dialed-in defense throughout the night.
The real issue, beyond those two botched late plays, was Davis, who no-showed yet again as a scorer.
Davis finished with 21 points on 6-of-15 shooting from the field and 9-of-10 shooting from the foul line, 14 rebounds, three blocks, one assist and one steal.
Hachimura never scored again after the first half. Austin Reaves (17 points on 6-of-11 shooting) and Dennis Schröder (13 points on 5-of-13 shooting) were LA's only other two double-digit scorers. D'Angelo Russell, in probably his last game for the Lakers, played just 14:56, scoring a scant four points on 2-of-5 shooing.
All five Denver starters scored in double figures. Jokic scored 30 points on 11-of-24 shooting from the floor (3-of-6 from long range), 14 rebounds, 13 assists, three blocks and a steal. Murray contributed 25 on 10-of-18 shooting, dished out five dimes, grabbed three boards, notched two steals and blocked a shot. Power forward Aaron Gordon was Denver's other 20+ point scorer, notching 22 on 9-of-14 shooting from the field (3-of-5 from long range).
All told, the Lakers lost these four games by a total of 24 points -- i.e. an average of just six per contest. Beyond a disheartening 119-108 Game 3 loss, these were all tight matchups, many of which could have gone either way. There's never a "good" sweep in the playoffs, but this is about as close as it could get.
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