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‘It’s not over’: Lakers hope to once again defy the odds, down 3-0 to Nuggets

news7g05/21/2023

5 4 minutes read

'It's not over': Lakers hope to once again defy the odds, down 3-0 to Nuggets

Melissa Rohlin

FOX Sports NBA Writer

LeBron James And Anthony Davis sitting in front of the lockers side by side with their feet in buckets of ice.

They didn’t say a word to each other. James looked at his phone. Davis has a great vision.

The Lakers have overcome a lot this season, but their 119-108 loss first Denver nuggets in Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals turned their typically cheerful locker room after the trading deadline into an awkward space of jarring silence.

The Lakers are currently losing the series 3-0, something no team in NBA history has surpassed.

When asked if he still had faith that they could turn the tide, James made it clear that he was not waving the white flag.

James, who has 23 points, seven rebounds and 12 assists, said: “I can’t speak for the boys right now, because I don’t know what’s going on in their minds at the moment. hey – but I still know.

“So, you know, it’s time to go home right now and start refueling, kick-start your treatment and recovery, and get ready for Monday. My mind is always locked like that. maybe it’s Game 1.”

The Lakers have yet to lose hope — not with James in their locker room, who is known for rewriting history.

He led Cleveland Cavaliers became the first and only team to recover from a series of 3-1 losses in the 2016 NBA Finals, impressing with golden empire warriors who has the best regular-season record in NBA history (73-9).

He has become the league’s all-time leading scorer this season – surpassing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s 38,387 points – despite being the first passer of his 20-season career.

And at 38, he became the oldest player in league history to average 28.9 points, 8.3 rebounds and 6.8 assists, according to StatHead.

So against impossibly long odds, James will attempt to rewrite history again. Going into Game 4 of the knockouts on Monday, James said his message to his team will be simple.

“I mean, just get one,” James said. “Just once. Just focus on Game 4. And, you know, that’s all you can really think about.”

The Lakers have been fighting an uphill battle all season.

After they won the play-in against Minnesota on April 11 to secure the seventh seed in the West, Lakers coach Darvin Ham wrote on the whiteboard “0.3 percent,” representing show the chances that their analytics department lets them into the knockout round after 2 -10 starts. By trading deadline, they were in 13th place in the Western Conference.

No one expected the Lakers to make it to the Western Conference Finals.

Now they are clinging to that. They worked hard to get here. Why not do the seemingly impossible right now?

“The deficit is 3-0, not 4,” Ham said. “So as long as they haven’t reached four points, there’s hope. We’re still alive. We just need to focus on winning a game.”

In all three games of this series, the Lakers were three points behind the Nuggets in the fourth quarter. In the last two games, they even took the lead. But every game ended the same way, with the Lakers overwhelmed by the size, depth, and superstars of the Nuggets.

In Game 3, the Lakers led by one point with 7:48 remaining, 94-93, before the Nuggets continued their lead 13-0.

Really, the Lakers played catch up all night. Jamal Murray had 17 points in the first quarter shooting 8 to 10 to give the Nuggets a 14-point lead, their biggest scoreline in the game. By halftime, he had 30 of his 37 points in 21 minutes.

The Lakers came back to close the game in the third inning. But in the fourth quarter, things fell apart for the Lakers when Blue Jeff, Bruce Lee and Murray hit 3 points in a row.

Once again, the Nuggets proved themselves to have more weapons, more talent, and more energy when taken into account.

In addition to James, the Lakers only have a significant contribution from Anthony Davis (28 points and 18 bounces), Austin Reaves (23 points) and Rui Hachimura (13 points). Meanwhile, the Nuggets have five players with double the number.

Now, a Nuggets franchise that has never made it to the NBA Finals is on the verge of making history. And the 17-time Lakers champion is in danger of being wiped out.

Nikola Jokić is far from celebrating, though.

“Honestly, I wouldn’t say I’m scared, but I’m worried because they have LeBron on the other side, and he’s capable of everything,” said Jokic, who didn’t score. goal on the field until about 4 minutes into the second half but continued to finish with 24 points, six rebounds and eight assists.

“We will come here with the same mindset, the same focus and I think that will put us in a position to win a game. But we never know. They will be very aggressive. Of course, they’ll become more physical, more – they’ll run more.”

For the Lakers, everything is working out.

So far, they’ve persevered through every challenge they’ve faced, but this will be their biggest challenge.

Now all they can do is grit their teeth and hope to prevail again – four times in a row.

“Obviously, as you’ve seen throughout this season, we’ve always been a fighting team,” Davis said. “We’re resilient. People keep fighting until it’s over. It’s not over.”

Melissa Rohlin is an NBA writer for FOX Sports. She has previously covered the tournament for Sports Illustrated, the Los Angeles Times, Bay Area News Group and the San Antonio Express-News. Follow her on Twitter @melissarohlin.

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