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Dave McMenamin, ESPN Employees Author
LOS ANGELES — Having simply logged the 285th playoff sport of his profession — clearing your entire 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 evening’s 112-105 Sport 3 loss.
“You are speculated to have anxiousness and strain — or really feel the strain,” James mentioned after Denver went up 3-0 of their first-round sequence, 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 heart’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 taking pictures, six rebounds and 9 assists, whereas Davis led L.A. with 33 factors on 14-for-23 taking pictures and 15 boards.
He did not say the identical for the remainder of the Lakers, who had been outplayed by a Denver workforce that had two gamers, Aaron Gordon and Michael Porter Jr., every prime 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 mentioned, “You’d should ask the people that query and see how they really feel. It is laborious for me simply to be like, ‘That is what I believe that man feels.’ … I am unable to do 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 taking pictures (0-for-6 from 3), he declined to talk to reporters after the sport, in accordance with a workforce spokesperson.
“We have been — me and this man [Davis] have been taking part in 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 workforce. And the 4 groups forward of the Lakers on that checklist — Detroit, Houston, Charlotte and Portland — have not been remotely near a championship in recent times.
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 in-built 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 way of three video games; within the 9 different quarters, the Lakers have outscored the Nuggets by 11.
“Our third quarter’s been atrocious,” mentioned guard Austin Reaves, the one Lakers participant to attain in double-digits apart from 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 employees late within the sport instructed this sequence is all however over, there may be nonetheless one other dwelling sport for L.A. to host Saturday in Sport 4.
Davis mentioned 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 mentioned. “We solely had 20 within the second [quarter], 22 within the third. A workforce 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 sequence. L.A. averaged 124.4 factors within the 12 wins it had in its closing 15 regular-season video games plus the play-in event main into the Denver sequence.
The Nuggets, in the meantime, are staying on excessive alert.
“I believe each sport is more durable and more durable,” Jokic mentioned. “They had been up 20 in Denver; they had been up 12 as we speak within the first half. I believe it is actually laborious to play in opposition to the identical workforce over once more. You’ll be able to’t get tired of the fashion of the play or no matter. You simply have to hold 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 tired of success as a result of it will probably go flawed 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 sport at a time, at this level,” James mentioned. “You lose, you go dwelling. So we’re going are available with the mindset of, ‘Let’s get one.’ Power 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.
