The Los Angeles Lakers, fueled by 30 points from superstar LeBron James, on Saturday stayed alive in the NBA playoffs 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 today.
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.
Photo: AFP
“I love the fourth quarter,” James said. “I understand it is closeout 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,” added 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.
The four-time NBA champion was not ready to celebrate the Lakers’ first win over Denver in 12 contests since December of 2022, knowing that no NBA team has rallied from 3-0 down to win a playoff series.
“We’re still down 3-1,” he said. “So each and every game will be its own challenge. We took care of business tonight to extend the series, but we’ve got to be even better.”
Saturday’s other three games were lopsided affairs, as Eastern Conference top seeds the 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 of the Pelicans that gave them a 3-0 stranglehold on their Western Conference series, while the Orlando Magic beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 112-89 to level their Eastern Conference series at two games apiece.
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