LOS ANGELES — Having simply logged the 285th playoff recreation of his profession — clearing your complete 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 purported to have anxiousness and stress — or really feel the stress,” James stated after Denver went up 3-0 of their first-round collection, one win away from sweeping L.A. into its summer time for a second straight yr. “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 middle’s skill to carry out when the video games matter most. The pair mixed for 59 factors. James completed with 26 factors on 12-for-20 capturing, six rebounds and 9 assists, whereas Davis led L.A. with 33 factors on 14-for-23 capturing and 15 boards.
He did not say the identical for the remainder of the Lakers, who had been outplayed by a Denver staff 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 had been overwhelmed by the Nuggets’ stage of execution, James stated, “You’d must ask the people that query and see how they really feel. It is laborious for me simply to be like, ‘That is what I feel that man feels.’ … I am unable to try this. I am not a thoughts reader. I do not know.”
Nobody was capable of ask Lakers level guard D’Angelo Russell that query. After going scoreless in Sport 3 on 0-for-7 capturing (0-for-6 from 3), he declined to talk to reporters after the sport, based on a staff spokesperson.
“We have been — me and this man [Davis] have been enjoying 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 excellent you bought to be. That is not like one thing that is so loopy to acquire.”
It appears considerably unimaginable for the Lakers in opposition to the Nuggets, nonetheless. They’ve misplaced 11 straight video games in opposition to Denver, the fifth-longest energetic streak by any franchise in opposition to a staff. And the 4 groups forward of the Lakers on that listing — 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 identical to the 12-point benefit the Lakers inbuilt Sport 1 and the 20-point lead that they had 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 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 moreover 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 prompt this collection is all however over, there may be nonetheless one other residence 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 obtained to attain,” Davis stated. “We solely had 20 within the second [quarter], 22 within the third. A staff like that, who’s going to attain, we obtained to have the ability to rating as effectively.”
The Lakers are averaging simply 102.3 factors within the collection. L.A. averaged 124.4 factors within the 12 wins it had in its remaining 15 regular-season video games plus the play-in match main into the Denver collection.
The Nuggets, in the meantime, are staying on excessive alert.
“I feel each recreation is more durable and more durable,” Jokic stated. “They had been up 20 in Denver; they had been up 12 right this moment within the first half. I feel it is actually laborious to play in opposition to the identical staff over once more. You’ll be able to’t get uninterested in the fashion of the play or no matter. You simply have to preserve doing you, particularly for us — as a result of we gained the final three — and simply belief what we’re doing and do not get uninterested in success as a result of it may go fallacious 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 residence. So we’re going are available 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 at all times have perception. I simply assume you play till the wheels fall off.”
ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne contributed to this report.
