On May 23, Beijing time, the Lakers and the Nuggets started the G4 game in the West Final, the Lakers changed their lineup again, Hachimura and Schroder started, and their partners James, thick eyebrows, and Reeves started the game, fully impacting the first win in the West Final, and Russell came off the bench; The Nuggets kept their original starters, with Jokic, Murray, Porter Jr., Gordon and Pope starting and sweeping 4-0 to advance to the Finals.
The G2 Lakers took the initiative to change the lineup, Van der Biao replaced Schroeder to return to the starting lineup, but Hamm gave up the three guards to start and could not win, and the West final lost three consecutive games in a desperate situation; In the G4 life and death battle, Hamm changed his formation again, and finally demoted Russell to the bench.
Hachimura finally entered the starting lineup, partnering James and Thick Eyebrows to start; In addition, Lakers center Bamba missed 9 consecutive games due to injury, and finally returned to play in the Western Conference Final G4.
Hamm said the main players will play as many as possible in the West G4.
In the Western Conference finals series, Russell's performance was very bad, and he couldn't attack and prevent the Lakers - G1 scored only 8 points on 4-of-11 shooting in 26 minutes, and was abandoned in the final quarter; G2 played 33 minutes and scored 10 points and 5 assists on 3-of-8 shooting; In the key G3 game, Russell started 20 minutes, only 3 points, 3 rebounds and 4 assists on 1-of-8 shooting, and was in bad form and withered off the bench again.
In the 3 games of the Western Conference finals, Russell shot 8-of-27 from the field and 2-of-14 from three-point range, averaging only 7 points, 2 rebounds and 4 assists per game, shooting 29.3% from the field and 14.3% from three-point range; The Lakers lost a total of 22 points in the three games in the Western Conference finals, and Russell had a combined plus-minus of -53.
Russell was in bad form, but Hachimura performed well, averaging 17 points, 2.7 rebounds and 1 assist in three games in the Western Conference finals, shooting 21 of 33 from the field and shooting 63.6% from the field; 3-of-6 three-pointers with a 50% shooting percentage; In this year's playoffs, in the previous 15 games, Hachimura has been a substitute and started the G4 finals, which is the first start of his Lakers playoff career.
The Lakers trailed the Nuggets 3-0 in the Western Finals, and James came to the arena many hours in advance before the G4 game to prepare for the first Western Conference final this year, in other words, the Lakers now aim to win one game first to avoid being swept, but the Nuggets are strong, and their goal is naturally to win the Western Conference finals as soon as possible.