Lakers defeat Nuggets to avoid elimination: ‘We’ve given ourselves another life’
LeBron James, in the Lakers’ white uniform, stood at the scorer’s table, filled his hands with chalk and tossed it into the evening air — the same as always.
Yet Saturday, even if it was like the previous 11 meetings with the Denver Nuggets, was always going to be different.
Before Saturday, a loss didn’t mean the Lakers might make a coaching change.
Before Saturday, a loss didn’t mean the Lakers were going to have to reimagine their roster.
Before Saturday, a loss didn’t mean James might’ve thrown that chalk into the air for the last time as a Laker.
The Lakers may struggle to contend for a title if they keep making quick coaching changes, but that might not be enough to save Darvin Ham’s job.
The stakes were so high — but the feeling was so familiar.
With 12 minutes left — two hours or so since James threw the powder into the air — the Lakers were at that point again.
Stand or fall. Resist or crumble. Lead or lose.
Back to Denver or off to Cancún.
For the first time in this Western Conference playoff series — really for the first time since the end of the 2022 season — the Lakers didn’t fall apart against the Nuggets’ second-half force. They didn’t panic as Denver pushed and as the Lakers’ shots rimmed in and out.
James drove through the Denver defense to hit the big buckets in the fourth quarter, D’Angelo Russell bounced back from a nightmare Game 3, Austin Reaves was aggressive and Anthony Davis dominated as the Lakers won 119-108 in Game 4 at Crypto.com Arena to extend their series with the Nuggets at least through Monday.
“Beautiful day to be alive in order to stay alive,” Lakers coach Darvin Ham said. “That was the message yesterday and the message today. Just win one game.”
The win ended a stretch of 11 straight losses to the Nuggets.
“We get another opportunity to go play one more game. And if we win, we’ll come back and play another and keep moving from there,” Reaves said. “I obviously wish we won 4-0. The odds aren’t stacked in our favor. But anytime we can keep ourselves floating above water, we have an opportunity to do something special. And we’re ready for the challenge.”
James scored 30 points, Russell and Reaves had 21 each and Davis scored 25 with 23 rebounds.
Nikola Jokic led Denver with 33 to go with 14 assists and 14 rebounds.
Russell, for the second time this series, bounced back from a bad game with a strong one — finishing with a team-best plus-15 rating.
“I mean, this isn’t a place that you can come out and try to dominate the game when you got LeBron and AD right next to you. So, for me to come out [in] Game 3 and not score and then come out and be ultra aggressive and do all that extra stuff, that’s not really me,” Russell said. “I know that’s what people were expecting me to do, so it may be easy for me to prepare my mind for that approach and let the game come to me and be aggressive and it was as simple as that. We looked up, everybody was aggressive, everybody was pitching in.”
The Lakers, as they have all series, outplayed the Nuggets early, outscoring them by five to extend their point differential to 27 points in first quarters.
That lead grew to double figures in the second quarter, the fourth time that has happened this series despite the Nuggets’ spotless record.
It grew to 15 early in the third quarter, as Denver took a timeout to try to gather itself. And while Jokic sank consecutive threes, the Lakers, for the first time this series, punched back.
The Nuggets’ late-game shot making, which has broken the Lakers’ backs for the last 15 months, surprisingly dried up.
And the Lakers’ attention to detail was at a series high, led by James, who was extra demonstrative. He screamed at the Lakers’ assistant coaches for not calling a timeout to trigger a fourth-quarter review. And after the Lakers got beat on a backdoor cut by Aaron Gordon, he yelled at Reaves.
The intensity, which has dipped throughout the series, never faded, the Nuggets never leading.
“The only opportunity for us is just to play the next game. And we’ve given ourselves another life. We’ve given ourselves another lifeline and it’s a one-game series for us,” James said. “…Monday’s game is the most important game of the season for us and we understand that and we know that, so it’s that stage where you lose, you’re done. You win and you keep going. So, it’s not much to talk about.”
Not yet, at least. The big decisions, the big moments move forward to a Game 5 when they start over again.
“It sucks to get swept. Nobody wants that feeling, especially going into the summer. You gotta live with that feeling for the rest of the summer. So we didn’t really talk about it, not just me and Bron, but the entire team. We know what’s at stake,” Davis said. “Like I said, nobody wants that feeling in their mouth for the rest of the summer. So the way we play tonight is the way we gotta play for the rest of the series: a sense of desperation and coming out with a sense of urgency.”
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