LOS ANGELES – On the brink of elimination, the Los Angeles Lakers must make history to beat the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference finals.
They must become the first NBA team to overcome a 3-0 deficit in a playoff series.
Game 4 will be Monday at Crypto.com Arena, with the Lakers needing to win four straight after suffering a 119-108 loss in Game 3 Saturday night.
“We just got to get one, it’s one at a time,” LeBron James said. “Just focus on Game 4. … It’s a one-game series for us.”
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These Lakers have faced daunting odds before.
They opened the season 2-10, at which point analytics showed the Lakers had a 0.3 percent chance of making the playoffs.
They were in 13th place in the Western Conference with six weeks left in the regular season.
And here they are.
“Obviously it’s a steeper climb being down 0-3,” Lakers big man Anthony Davis said. “But we are going to keep taking it one game at a time and try to get better and come out with a win on Monday.”
Lakers coach Darvin Ham put it in simpler terms.
“We’re still alive,” he said.
Nuggets ‘can shoot over’ Lakers
The Lakers will report to their training facility Sunday and review film of Game 3 against the Nuggets. The most painful footage will begin with 7:48 left to play in the fourth quarter.
The Lakers, who trailed by as many as 14 points in the first half, went up 94-93 when forward Rui Hachimura made two free throws.
Denver responded with a 13-0 run, triggered when the Lakers committed turnovers on back-to-back possessions but also when Nuggets reserves Jeff Green and Bruce Brown made back-to-back 3-pointers.
James referred in part to that sequence when asked what has given Denver the edge in the series.
“I think it was their supporting cast that made those timely shots,” he said.
Hachimura sounded almost helpless when he pointed out the Nuggets are bigger than the Lakers and capitalizing on their shooting proficiency from 3-point range
“You know, they can just shoot over us,” he said.
Jamal Murray, a 6-foot-4 guard, is the Nuggets’ best 3-point shooter. But the Lakers have also been hurt by 6-10 forward Michael Porter Jr., who is 11-for-23 from 3-point range in the Western Conference finals. And Nikola Jokic, the Nuggets’ 6-11 center, is 5-for-11 from 3-point range.
‘Coach Jokic’? Nikola thinks it’s ‘the worst job’
Denver coach Michael Malone said Jokic was on the bench and in foul trouble in the fourth quarter when he persuaded Malone to run plays featuring Jokic and Murray in the two-man game. When Jokic checked back in, Malone said, he followed Jokic’s advice.
“We milked that down the stretch,” Malone said. “Coach Jokic did a great job tonight.”
So perhaps the Nuggets star center has a future in coaching?
“I don’t want to be a coach,” Jokic replied. “I think that’s the worst job on the planet, for sure.”
Jamal Murray had ‘tears in his eyes’ in bleaker times
After Murray scored 37 points for the second game in a row, Denver’s coach on Saturday remembered bleaker times for his star guard.
It was April 13, 2021, the day after Murray suffered a torn ACL during a game against the Golden State Warriors.
“I remember being on the bus with him, going to the airport … and he had tears in his eyes,” Malone said. “His first thought was, man, are you guys going to trade me? Really that was his − I am damaged goods. Are you going to trade me now?
“I hugged him. I said, ‘Hell no, you’re ours. We love you. We’re going to help you get back, and you’re going to be a better player for it.’ “
Clearly, Malone was right.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Lakers ‘still alive’ but face long odds trailing Nuggets 3-0