Nuggets get Win Over Lakers in Game 3 – Bring out the brooms early. The Denver Nuggets wore the Los Angeles Lakers down into submission on Thursday night at Crypto.com Arena with a 112-105 win to take a commanding 3-0 lead in their best-of-seven series, the 11th consecutive victory the Nuggets have registered against their adversaries in the last year and a half.
In NBA history, no team has come back from that deficit.
The only word that can describe Thursday’s game is commanding, even as the Lakers attempted to conjure up an emotional boost in their first home game in over two weeks. The obvious structural flaws of the Laker roster are clear and unmistakable, however, the reason they put themselves in position for even the most delusional Laker fan is because the tandem of LeBron James and Anthony Davis make you believe you always have a chance to come out on top.
And there is just enough shooting, playmaking and defense from the supporting cast to fill in the gaps. Instead, the Lakers were coming up empty, even while the defending champion Nuggets provided them with plenty of reason to play hard, to give it their all.
Going into the fourth quarter, the Lakers were a dismal one of 14 from distance. By the time Taurean Prince knocked down the next one, there was just under eight minutes left in the game, and the Nuggets were enjoying a 12-point lead.
It has been a constant, the inconsistent shooting despite the numbers that trended upward when the Lakers finished on a 15-3 flurry to capture the seventh seed in the West. But even their strong suit did not feel so powerful. It felt forced.
“The regular season and postseason are two different games, different situations,” James said. “What happens in the regular season builds habits. But the game totally changes in the postseason.”
As usual, the contest turned on its head in the third quarter, a theme in this series, when MVP front-runner Nikola Jokić picked up his third foul early. The Nuggets had already taken the lead but the Lakers smelled blood in the water, detecting an opportunity to put Jokic on the bench with a fourth. However, it blew up in their faces.
Back-to-back turnovers by Davis and then another one by James stripped all the energy and momentum the Lakers could have gathered, and before they could blink the Lakers were down double digits.
“We gotta do a better job of staying focused, staying positive through it all,” Lakers coach Darvin Ham said. “You have those disappointing moments, we call them disappointment lags, that disappointment can spill over for two, three, four possessions and see that someone makes a mistake, they drop their heads, jog back instead of sprinting back. You have to fight through all of that. They’re defending champions for a reason.”
It was a similar outcome to games one and two in the ‘Mile High City’, Denver. Davis dominates early on and then fades into the background like a wall flower, whether it was altitude, not enough attitude or too much responsibility on his shoulders in anchoring a defense that would be shaky at best without him, it happened again.
After Davis’ comments following Game 2, that threw Ham under the bus, he also said players do not often know what they are doing, the pressure was on him to show up and at least play Jokić to a draw, if not outright win the matchup.
Thirty of his game-high 33 points came in the first 36 minutes, but he found hands and bodies surrounding him because no one was a threat from anywhere, and it was bound to take its toll. That, along with the heavyweight Jokić leaning on him for rounds on end made the legs weak even if the mind and spirit was willing.
Jokić worked himself into a 24-point, 15-rebound night, and added nine assists. He did not have to spend a lot of energy on this night, but like the rest of his team, they know exactly how long they have to play at full concentration in order to put an opponent away, 48 minutes.
Austin Reaves finished with 22, but so many came in garbage time after the game was out of reach late in the fourth. When it counted, Reaves and the much-maligned D’Angelo Russell combined to shoot four for 18, with Russell going scoreless. He was also spotted on his cell phone while the game was still in progress.
Russell’s rhythm from Game 2 did not transfer over, and they were facing a team that very clearly has gotten in their heads. James has been the player that has broken so many hearts for so many franchises over the course of his career, especially over the last 15 years and he has had a few monsters in his closet, the most recent being Jokić and these Nuggets.
It is mental blocks and self-fulfilling prophecies working here, and James has said the Lakers would need to play near-perfect basketball to beat the Nuggets.
“We’ve (me and Davis) played together six years, we’ve been to the mountaintop and been close to the mountaintop and played a lot of games,” James said. “We know what it takes to win, what it takes to win a championship and how damn near perfect you have to be.”
“That’s not so crazy to obtain. I’ve been apart of it four times.”
James did compliment the Nuggets saying they are a team with no offensive flaws, even if he could not rank them among the most difficult teams he has ever faced through his 21-year career. Aaron Gordon repeatedly ducked in for offensive rebounds and paint touches and scores, many of them catching James falling asleep on the backside of the defense, that Jokić did not even lead the Nuggets in scoring.
It was Gordon who had a career playoff-high 29 along with 15 boards, and Michael Porter Jr. did damage in the fourth with 10 of his 20 in the period, hitting contested shots when the Lakers had a glimmer of hope.
James did his usual, with 26 points, nine assists and six rebounds in 42 minutes. He had a flurry of activity early, including a steal and dunk that gave the Lakers an 8-0 lead, but it was going to be difficult to lead the offense, stay alert on defense and play so many minutes to keep his team afloat.
It was just a matter of time before the Lakers were overwhelmed to the pace and depth of the Nuggets. It can come from anywhere, at any time. That is tiresome through the course of a playoff series, or years.
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Magic Hand Cavaliers Worst Playoff Loss in Franchise History – The friendlies place on earth was not so inviting on Thursday. After picking apart the Orlando Magic in the first two games of their 1st Round matchup, the Cleveland Cavaliers had the tables turned on them in dramatic fashion, with the Magic running out to a double-digit lead after one quarter and never looking back in a 121-83 rout in Orlando. The Cavaliers, who led wire to wire during Games 1 and 2 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, shot a frigid 39 percent from the floor and were 8-of-34 from downtown. Only four Cavaliers registered in double-figure in the loss, led by big man Jarrett Allen and Caris LeVert, who finished with 15 points apiece.
In handing the Cavaliers their worst postseason loss in team history, eclipsing a 36-point loss to Gilbert Arenas and the Washington Wizards back in 2008, the Magic shot 51 percent from the floor, swished 13 triples, and crushed the Cavaliers on the boards, finishing with a 51-32 advantage, including a 14-5 edge on the offensive glass. Paolo Banchero, who had been relatively quiet through the first two games, led all scorers with 31 points and 14 rebounds.
Coach J.B. Bickerstaff on Thursday’s one-sided loss. “We did a good job early defensively, but let them get multiple looks at it. You allow them to catch a rhythm, start to feel the boost. You knew they were going to come out and play hard, but it was the first quarter where they set the tone, and then we were chasing them, and we couldn’t find it.”
Jarrett Allen had an efficient 24 minutes of action on the offensive end, going 5-of-6 from the floor and 5-of-5 from the stripe for 15 points, leading Cleveland with eight rebounds.
Allen was bothered by Thursday’s lack luster start in Orlando. “I felt like they came out ready to attack. We felt like we were a step behind in every single thing that they did, whether it was them driving to the rim, me standing in the paint, or just rebounding the ball. We were just a little slow.”
Caris LeVert led Cleveland’s bench and got his first double-digit performance of the postseason, finishing with 15 points on 5-of-13 shooting, adding three assists, two boards and a block in 29 minutes of work.
After scoring 20-points-plus in each of his last four outings, Donovan Mitchell came back down to earth struggling, and finished with 13 points on 6-of-16 shooting, including 1-of-6 from beyond the arc, pacing the Cavaliers with seven helpers in the loss.
Mitchell talked in his postgame press conference about what Cleveland needs to do for Game 4 on Saturday. “Come out with aggression. The good thing about this is it’s a series, we come back and get ready on Saturday – but come out with aggression, set the tone. That’s pretty much it. It’s really black and white, to be honest. Credit them. They protected their home court; they did their job. But we’ve got to do ours. We’ve got to be ready for Saturday.”
Evan Mobley was the only other Cavalier in double-figures, finishing with 10 points on 4-of-9 from the field, grabbing a pair of boards and leading both teams with three blocks.
After falling on Thursday night, the series stays in central Florida for Game 4 on Saturday afternoon. The series then returns to Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse for Game 5 next Tuesday night, back to Orlando next Friday for Game 6 and back to Cleveland next Sunday if the series extends to a Game 7.
