LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Lakers, fuelled by 30 points from star LeBron James, gave themselves a lifeline in the National Basketball Association (NBA) play-offs on April 27 with a 119-108 victory over the Denver Nuggets.
Down 3-0 to the defending champions and facing elimination, the Lakers stood firm on their home floor, weathering a triple-double from Nuggets star Nikola Jokic to send the series back to Denver for Game 5 on April 29.
After the Lakers let double-digit leads evaporate in losing each of the first three games, James scored 14 points in the fourth quarter to ensure it did not happen again.
“I love the fourth quarter,” James said. “I understand it is close-out time and we haven’t been able to do that versus this team through three games.
“So tonight I had an opportunity to do that and I wanted to deliver.”
The 39-year-old, who connected on six of eight shots in the final period, drew a charge and came up with a steal that he parlayed into a dunk at the other end.
But the four-time NBA champion was not ready to celebrate the Lakers’ first win over Denver in 12 contests, since December 2022, knowing that no NBA team have rallied from 3-0 down to win a play-off series.
“We’re still down 3-1,” he said.
“The only opportunity for us is just to play the next game. We’ve given ourselves another lifeline, and it’s a one-game series for us.”
Anthony Davis added 25 points and 23 rebounds for Los Angeles. Austin Reaves and D’Angelo Russell scored 21 points apiece.
Russell repaid the faith of coach Darvin Ham, who kept him in the starting line-up after he went scoreless in Game 3.
Two-time NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) Jokic scored 33 points with 14 rebounds and 14 assists.
Michael Porter Jr added 27 points and 11 rebounds and Jamal Murray added 22 for the Nuggets.
Said Denver coach Michael Malone: “The paint (defence) was a joke. Every huddle, I sounded like a broken record tonight.
“Every huddle was, ‘Paint, paint, paint’. (In) Game 3, they had 70 and we found a way to win. Tonight, they had 72. That’s an incredible number...
“I just didn’t think we had the requisite physicality or urgency.”
The other three games on April 27 were lopsided affairs, as overall top seeds Boston rebounded from a shock home loss to the eighth-seeded Heat with a 104-84 victory in Miami that put the Celtics up 2-1.
The Thunder, winners of their first two games against the Pelicans in Oklahoma City, pressed their advantage in New Orleans with a 106-85 thrashing that gave them a 3-0 stranglehold on their Western Conference series.
And the Orlando Magic beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 112-89 to level their Eastern Conference series at 2-2.
In Miami, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown scored 22 points apiece for Boston.
Tatum added 11 rebounds and six assists as the Celtics led from start to finish.
Kristaps Porzingis scored 18 points and Derrick White chipped in 16 for the Celtics, who allowed the Heat the fewest points of any Celtics opponent this season.
“Once they got up double digits, their pressure started to pick up,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “They were the more physical team, they bodied us, bullied us.”
Miami, who had just nine three-pointers after raining 23 treys in their Game 2 victory, will try to regroup when they host Game 4 on April 29.
That is also when Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Thunder will have a chance to close out the Pelicans in New Orleans.
With Zion Williamson sidelined with a hamstring strain, the Pelicans had no answer for the young Thunder team led by MVP finalist Gilgeous-Alexander, who paced the Thunder with 24 points.
Said Thunder coach Mark Daigneault: “Our physicality again, our defence and focus on that end of the floor was really, really good, made them earn everything. And I thought that set the tone.” AFP
