The Los Angeles Lakers’ chances of making it to the next round are close to none. After falling in game three to the Denver Nuggets 112-105, they are now down in the series 3-0. No team has come back from that deficit to move on to the next round. For LeBron James and Co., this may be the end of another failed championship run.
Following the common theme of this series, the Lakers had a double-digit lead at one point in this game. Up ten after the first quarter, you could see the energy Los Angeles had with their home crowd behind them. Though the lead cut to seven at the half, it looked like they would defend home court.
Wrong. Denver continues to give the Lakers false hope and came out firing in the second half. They outscored Los Angeles 34-22 and would take the lead and never relinquish it.
Ironically, both teams had the same field-goal percentage (48.9%) and shot terribly from three (18%). Denver did outrebound Los Angeles 51-38, including 14 offensive rebounds.
The Nuggets’ depth continues to haunt the Lakers. It wasn’t all about Jamal Murray (22 points) and Nikola Jokic (24 points). Aaron Gordon had a monster game with 29 points and 15 rebounds, and Michael Porter Jr had 20 and 10 of his own. Their bench did enough to make a difference in this game.
The Lakers Need Major Changes This Offseason
When your starting point guard continues to underwhelm in the playoffs and no one is contributing outside of your stars, something needs to change.
Erase his performance in game two, and D’Angelo Russell has looked like an absolute disaster. After showing what he could do in the regular season, the postseason has not been kind to him. After shooting 6-20 in game one, he went 0-7 in game three. Zero points. 24 minutes. Terrible.
Austin Reaves did contribute with his 22 points, but it was needed after an underwhelming game two. Rui Hachimura continues to disappoint in the playoffs (five points), and the Lakers’ bench had just 19 points.
The point is, that there’s only so much you can ask from LeBron James (26 points) and Anthony Davis (33 points) when facing teams like the Nuggets. I understand that they’re your two stars and they’re supposed to step up to the challenge. But, what more do you want from them (well, maybe if Davis could start scoring in the fourth quarter, that would be nice but still)?
Denver is a deep team. Anyone can hurt you at any moment on that team. Facing a team like that means being on your A-game at all times. Los Angeles has continued to get out to decent leads, but end up blowing it in the second half. Whether it’s other guys not stepping up or their opponent being too dominant, this series has looked like a disaster.
The Lakers have lost 11 straight games to the Nuggets. They may as well make it 12 before Saturday arrives. Unless they do a complete 360, there’s no way they become the first team to come back from a 3-0 deficit to win the series. It’ll take a valiant effort from both James and Davis to make that happen, which could be too much to ask.
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Featured Image: Gina Ferazzi/Getty Images
