During a timeout midway through the third quarter at Crypto Arena on Saturday, three young Lakers fans stood in a corner on the ground floor of the arena, each holding a placard. They wrote: Please...play hard...play.
The demands of Lakers fans are understandable, because their opponents are the defending NBA champions Denver Nuggets , who have won 11 consecutive games against the Los Angeles Lakers and are only one victory away from being in the playoffs for two consecutive years. The game swept the Lakers.
But that’s the thing about competitive sports, you never know what’s going to happen. This night was both real and unexpected. I mean, who could have predicted that Los Angeles Lakers guard D'Angelo Russell would go from being maligned to being a hit, or that Nuggets star Jamal Murray would do his best to imitate Russell. ?
On this night, the Lakers not only played hard, but also won the final victory. They defeated the Nuggets 119-108, dragging the first-round playoff series between the two sides into the fifth game.
"We gave ourselves another lifeline, a lifeline, and this is a great series for us."
For Russell and the Lakers, after a frustrating loss against the Nuggets two days ago, Say, planning a vacation should be easy. Russell failed to score in 24 minutes and the Lakers collapsed in the second half of their third straight game in this series, putting them not only on the brink of playoff elimination but against an undefeated opponent: History .
No NBA team has ever successfully come back from a 3-0 deficit to win a seven-game series - 151 teams have tried, and 151 have failed. The Lakers could become a member of this list as soon as Monday night ( Suns has become the 152nd team).
To think that Saturday night's game isn't the inevitable result of delaying the game is to believe that Russell can continue to play as well as he did on Saturday, when he had 21 points, 4 assists and 4 assists. rebound. At this point, there's nothing in his past to suggest he can maintain this form. I also don't believe Murray will shoot 9-for-23 from the field and 0-for-4 from beyond the arc like he did Saturday.
No matter what the Lakers said after the game - they also used the slogan "One game determines the outcome" - this may very well be their last ditch effort. This game represented more dignity than support for their true belief in going from an 11-game losing streak to a four-game winning streak against the Nuggets. It's easy to believe that James and Anthony Davis, who had 25 points and 23 rebounds, were amazing in the series. The problem lies with the supporting cast.
Did this team perform well enough on this night? Yes. But a broken clock will be accurate once or twice a day. The challenge is getting role players to step up consistently. When they do that, the Lakers can play against anyone. We saw that on Saturday and at times throughout the series.
In fact, without Russell's key contribution in the second half, especially in the middle of the fourth quarter, the Lakers would not have won Game 4. When the Nuggets tried to create their own offense in the final seconds, he blocked the Nuggets' attack with a layup, an offensive rebound that was tipped into the hands of Davis, a dunk that assisted James and a three-pointer of his own. Attack wave. He helped the team score four times in a row, and the Lakers expanded their 97-84 advantage to their largest lead of the night at 106-87.
Lakers guard Austin Reeves said: "His performance was amazing. He had a signature offense where he made two or three quick shots and it felt like a 12-0 scoring surge." The way he plays basketball, we need him to play at the highest level to be successful and he did that tonight, and you have to give credit to a guy like that after Game 3, and the world was beating him up. It's easier than you think to get rid of all these distractions, but that just goes to show how much we need him."
The shadow of immaturity has been there for most of Russell's career. loomed over him.That's one reason the eighth-year player is now on his fourth team and second with the Lakers, who originally drafted him with the second overall pick in 2015. Russell's talent has always been there, but his focus and stability are not. This is why it is difficult for the Lakers to defeat the Nuggets.
They got a lot of things right on Saturday. Russell played well, while Murray performed poorly; Denver only scored 5 second-chance points and 9 offensive rebounds; moreover, the Lakers maintained their rhythm in the third quarter for the first time in this series. . They trailed 32-30 in the quarter, but that was a huge improvement from previous games, including Thursday night when they trailed 34-22.
Davis said: "We have full confidence in the team. In this series, we have taken the lead many times; it was just in the second half, actually the third quarter, that we failed to perform as well as we should have. We are in any "I didn't lose confidence at all."
Several players said that they did not regard the fourth game as a knockout game because everyone knew the reality of the situation. Instead, they did what coach Darwin Hamm suggested -- they seized the opportunity to compete and enjoy the joy of playing freely.
Hamm said: "Everything we've been through as a team, on and off the court, we deserved it tonight. We just have to keep that feeling going and keep working hard and really go. Understand, this could be our moment. Why couldn't it be us?
The answer could be revealed on Monday night in Denver.
