LOS ANGELES — With all the Lakers have been through this season – especially against the Denver Nuggets – a nervous excitement permeated throughout Crypto.com Arena for Game 4 of their first-round playoff series on Saturday night.
Because Game 4 started similarly to the series’ previous three games, all of which the Nuggets had rallied to win to give themselves an opportunity to sweep the Lakers out of the playoffs for the second consecutive season.
But the Lakers, led by strong performances from LeBron James (30 points), Anthony Davis (25 points, 23 rebounds, six assists) and D’Angelo Russell (21 points) flipped the script, staving off another Nuggets comeback attempt and leading wire-to-wire in a 119-108 victory that extends their season.
The Lakers’ victory ended their losing streak to the Nuggets at 11 games, with their previous victory against Denver (including seven postseason games) coming on Dec. 16, 2022, and was a performance more worthy of a team that rolled into the postseason with 12 wins in 15 games.
Game 5 of the best-of-seven series is Monday night in Denver.
Trailing by as much as 19 points midway through the fourth quarter (106-87) after a Russell pull-up 3-pointer, the Nuggets kept trying to muster another comeback.
A 6-0 Nuggets run cut the Lakers’ lead to 13 with a little over four minutes left. The Nuggets kept cutting into the lead, trimming the deficit to seven multiple times.
But James, who scored 14 of his points in the fourth quarter on 6-for-8 shooting, helped make sure the Lakers weren’t going to be swept by the Nuggets again, again carrying the team late in his 21st NBA season.
He scored six straight Laker points to give them a 113-103 lead with 1:31 left.
Austin Reaves (21 points on 7-for-15 shooting to go with six assists) scored the Lakers’ last six points, including making four free throws in the last 43 seconds with the Nuggets intentionally fouling, to help seal the victory.
Russell bounced back from going scoreless in the Game 3 loss, shooting 8 for 15 from the field on Saturday after missing all seven of his shots on Thursday.
The Lakers dominated the interior, scoring 72 points in the paint, and held the Nuggets to nine offensive rebounds and five second-chance points, which had been an area of weakness for most of the series.
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The Lakers had 44 points in the paint during the first half alone on their way to a 61-48 halftime lead, their fourth halftime advantage of the series.
Nikola Jokic finished with 33 points, 14 rebounds and 14 rebounds for his second triple-double of the series and the 18th of his postseason career.
Michael Porter Jr., who answered most of the Lakers’ runs with big shot after big shot, had 27 points on 10-for-20 shooting to go with 11 rebounds. Jamal Murray’s shooting struggles continued, with the guard scoring 22 points on 9-for-23 shooting.
The second-seeded Nuggets also lost a closeout game in last season’s first round while up 3-0 on Minnesota, but Denver won that series in five games and lost only three more times on the way to its first NBA championship.
More to come on this story.