Lakers falter again, on brink of another playoff sweep to Nuggets

LOS ANGELES — Having simply logged the 285th playoff recreation of his profession — clearing your entire 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 presupposed to have nervousness and strain — or really feel the strain,” James stated after Denver went up 3-0 of their first-round sequence, one win away from sweeping L.A. into its summer time 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 heart’s means 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 group that had two gamers, Aaron Gordon and Michael Porter Jr., every high 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 stated, “You’d should ask the people that query and see how they really feel. It is onerous for me simply to be like, ‘That is what I feel that man feels.’ … I can not do this. I am not a thoughts reader. I do not know.”

Nobody was in a position to 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 group spokesperson.

“We have been — me and this man [Davis] have been taking part in collectively for six years,” James continued. “We have been to the mountaintop. We have been near the mountaintop. We have performed plenty 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 unimaginable for the Lakers towards the Nuggets, nonetheless. They’ve misplaced 11 straight video games towards Denver, the fifth-longest energetic streak by any franchise towards a group. And the 4 groups forward of the Lakers on that checklist — Detroit, Houston, Charlotte and Portland — have not been remotely near a championship lately.

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 similar to the 12-point benefit the Lakers in-built 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,” stated guard Austin Reaves, the one Lakers participant to attain in double-digits in addition to 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 workers late within the recreation recommended this sequence is all however over, there may be nonetheless one other house recreation for L.A. to host Saturday in Sport 4.

Davis stated 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 stated. “We solely had 20 within the second [quarter], 22 within the third. A group 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 sequence. L.A. averaged 124.4 factors within the 12 wins it had in its last 15 regular-season video games plus the play-in event main into the Denver sequence.

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

“I feel each recreation is more durable and more durable,” Jokic stated. “They have been up 20 in Denver; they have been up 12 in the present day within the first half. I feel it is actually onerous to play towards the identical group over once more. You may’t get tired of the model of the play or no matter. You simply have to maintain 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 tired of success as a result of it will possibly go mistaken 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 recreation at a time, at this level,” James stated. “You lose, you go house. 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 definately all the time have perception. I simply assume you play till the wheels fall off.”

ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne contributed to this report.