Lakers Final Score: LA Stumbles Down Stretch, Falls To 0-3 Against Denver
Well, it was a nice season while it lasted.
Your Los Angeles Lakers fumbled the bag big-time tonight in Los Angeles, losing a late lead to ultimately fall 119-108 to the Denver Nuggets.
The defeat was LA's third straight in these Western Conference Finals, and its first home loss in the playoffs. LA has yet to win a game in the series.
In the history of the NBA, 149 teams have stumbled into an 0-3 deficit in a best-of-seven playoff series, per ESPN. None of those clubs has ever rallied.
I hate to break it to you, but this Los Angeles Lakers squad, the 150th such team, is not going to end that cycle of futility.
In the first quarter, Denver made sure to quiet down a rabid Crypto.com Arena home crowd eager for its first in-person Western Conference Finals since 2010.
Jamal Murray submitted an encore of his epic 23-point fourth quarter in Game 2 with an epic 18-points first quarter in Game 3, achieved on 8-of-10 field goal shooting, while playing every second. Two-time MVP center Nikola Jokic, meanwhile, scored no points in the period. Denver led by double digits after the opening frame, 32-20.
A 10-4 Laker run to open up the second quarter prompted Nuggets head coach Michael Malone to burn an early timeout and regroup. The contest got chippy in a hurry, as both Davis and Jokic were whistled for their second fouls early in the second quarter.
Murray kept cooking in the second frame. It didn't help that LeBron James at times underestimated him, occasionally picking him up far below the three-point arc.
By the end of the first half, Murray had already accrued 30 points on 13-of-20 shooting in the first half. The rest of his team notched just 28 points. The Nuggets entered the halftime break leading by a possession, 58-55.
The third quarter was a back-and-forth affair. At one point late in the frame, when Denver seemed to be creating a bit of separation, James ended his extended three-point shooting cold streak in these Conference Finals, nailing two straight triples (Dennis Schröder also chipped in).
Los Angeles outscored the Nuggets in the third quarter by a point, narrowing Denver's advantage to just two points, 84-82, heading into the end of regulation.
Some clutch fourth quarter scoring from Rui Hachimura, in combination with some interior scoring from James and Davis, helped keep the contest close for a while. The Lakers actually led 94-93 with 7:48 remaining in the frame.
That's when a well-rounded Denver attack sparked a 13-0 Nuggets run, putting them up by double digits, 106-94, with 4:50 remaining in the contest. Los Angeles, unable to buy a stop down the home stretch, could never close the gap for long. After Murray carried Denver in the first half, Jokic picked up the slack in the fourth quarter, scoring 15 points on 5-of-7 shooting splits (1-of-2 from deep) and 4-of-7 shooting from the charity stripe. He also chipped in two rebounds and two assists.
The Crypto.com Arena faithful were fleeing in droves by the time Darvin Ham raised his white flag around the one-minute mark.
Game 4 is scheduled for Monday night. Whether or not the Lakers nab their first victory of the series then, there's virtually no way they're going to be able to fend off Denver across four straight contests.
It's been a good run, especially for a seventh-seeded club that's been the technical underdog in each of its three playoff series. But make no mistake. It's over.
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