Lakers fall flat against Nuggets in Game 3, on brink of being swept again – Orange County Register

LOS ANGELES — For all the talk about adjustments and what the Lakers needed to do between Monday’s Game 2 loss at Denver and Thursday night’s Game 3 at Crypto.com Arena to avoid falling into an even deeper hole deep in their first round of the playoffs. series, star forward LeBron James’ message was simple.

“There’s not a lot we can talk about,” he said after the team’s practice Wednesday in El Segundo. “We need to go out and take care of this too.

“So all the conversations and the speeches, ‘OK, we have to do this, we have to do this,’ but we have to get out there and make it happen.”

Even though the message was heard, the follow-up was lacking Thursday night, with the Lakers losing again to the Nuggets, 112-105 – the death knell of the Lakers’ season as the NBA teams fell behind 3-0 in playoffs. were ultimately eliminated in the 151st of these series.

Only four teams came back from a 3-0 deficit to even extend the series to a winner-take-all seventh game.

Game 4 will take place Saturday evening at the Crypto.com Arena.

Although the Lakers talked about flipping the script after similar losses in Games 1 and 2, Game 3 played out the same way, with the play of Anthony Davis (33 points, 15 rebounds) and LeBron James (26 points, nine assists, six rebounds) and Austin Reaves (22 points, five rebounds, three assists) weren’t enough to get the Lakers past the reigning NBA champions, who beat them for the 11th consecutive time (including seven in the playoffs). The Lakers haven’t beaten the Nuggets since December 16, 2022.

Aaron Gordon had 29 points and 15 rebounds and Nikola Jokic added 24 points, 15 rebounds and nine assists to set the tone for the Nuggets. Jamal Murray scored 22 points and Michael Porter Jr. added 20.

The Lakers surged into the postseason with largely stellar play since Feb. 1, capped by an impressive play-in victory over New Orleans to secure the seventh seed.

But the Nuggets are the same nightmare matchup for the Lakers — or any opponent, really — that they were a year ago in the conference finals.

The Lakers missed 15 of their first 16 3-point attempts in Game 3, going nearly 34 minutes between 3-point baskets.

D’Angelo Russell went scoreless in 24 minutes of play for the Lakers, who had just two assists thanks to their inconsistent third option on offense. Russell missed all seven of his shots, including six 3-point attempts.

A game against Denver is a challenge, even if the Lakers regulars are all playing well, and Russell’s disappearance was compounded by another quiet game from starter Rui Hachimura, who had just five points while making four shots in 28 minutes.

The Lakers, as they did in the first two games of the series, had the advantage early on, taking a 33-22 lead in the second quarter after pushing the ball in transition and playing at a fast pace in half court.

The Lakers still led 53-49 at halftime, but the Nuggets did what they’ve been doing all series: dominate the Lakers in the third quarter.

Led by the all-around play of Jokic, Murray and Gordon, the Nuggets outscored the Lakers 34-22 in the quarter to take an 83-75 lead into the fourth.

The Nuggets won the third three quarters of this series by a combined score of 91-60, accounting for most of their 42-point advantage in the second half.

Outside of Davis and James, the Lakers have found no answer against a team that clearly has their number.

There was more bench production offensively, with Gabe Vincent and Spencer Dinwiddie scoring their first points of the series.

But the Lakers could not compensate for their poor shooting success, shooting 18.5% at 3 points (5 of 27). They went from 5:24 in the first quarter to 7:59 in the fourth without making a shot from behind the arc.