Game 4 of the Lakers and Nuggets! The Lakers have only one way to win, otherwise they will go home to fish and regroup. On the contrary, the Nuggets have no baggage, it is best to win, sweep 4-0 to advance, rest early to prepare for the finals, lose is acceptable, return to the home court and sell more tickets for one more game.
In the first quarter, the Lakers suppressed the Nuggets 34-28, a gap of 6 points! The reason why the Lakers were able to take the lead was mainly because James exploded, slashed 21 points, bounced three-pointers, and played the best 12 minutes of the series. It's a pity that the teammates are not very strong, and Davis and Hachimura do not perform well, otherwise the difference will be even bigger. The Nuggets' side except for Pope's other players have a bad outside touch, and Jokic has not played much because he is targeted, resulting in them being passive. Despite this, the Nuggets still scored 28 points, which has to be said to be really strong.
In the second quarter, James and Murray led the team single-core, Porter's three-point shot finally broke, Murray named Thompson from mid-range, Reeves ghostly made a layup and scored a three-pointer, Thompson countered with a fast attack to score and suppress the Nuggets' rhythm. Murray's three-point shot was still missing, and James broke through for a layup, a 7-0 handicap to double digits, and a 43-33 stop for Malone. The Nuggets came back Jokic to press the whistle on a three-pointer to stop the bleeding, and then James and Gordon clashed, the two got into a physical entanglement, the former pushed the latter out of the court, the referee did not blow a penalty, nothing happened.
Back in the game, Russell continued to play iron, and Jokic played TT without difficulty. James broke through for a layup to stop the bleeding, Gordon countered with a fast attack score, Schroder opened a three-pointer, Murray made a free throw, Hachimura misplaced a single, Murray made a free throw, the score alternately rose, and the Lakers maintained an 8-point advantage. Jokic missed a pass, James countered with a layup, and stopped Malone again at 55-43, and 12 points is also the biggest lead for the Lakers in this series.
The Nuggets came back from a timeout and Jokic hit another three-pointer, Murray broke through, Hachimura scored a rebound, and James turned on a layup, and no one could stop anyone. Gordon opened the three-pointer, the first three-pointer of the series, Hachimura continued, Murray was fine, Reeves rushed again, and Porter responded with a three-point from the bottom corner. Reeves was gone in the middle distance and Murray stopped. Then the Lakers made consecutive free throws, and Davis hit three of four free throws to maintain double-digit suppression. James broke through the free throw line, Malone was dissatisfied with the penalty and angrily rebuked the referee, the referee was not used to it, a technical foul, Davis went to the free throw line again, the Lakers made 9 consecutive free throws, 73-58 led the Nuggets by 15 points to end the first half. Malone again went to the referee to protest at half-time, you can blow fouls, but you have to treat them equally, blow why we don't blow them, it's too amateurish.
The referee's blowing penalty is indeed controversial, but it has to be said that the Lakers are indeed the better side, in addition to James' big explosion, Schroder and Rivers are also very powerful, that is, Davis pulls his crotch a little, otherwise the lead will be greater. The biggest problem of the Nuggets is defense, offensive efficiency is already very high, the shooting rate reaches 50%, but the inability to prevent has been passive, plus some blowing factors, it is very uncomfortable.
Lakers: Hachimura 10 points, James 31 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists, Thick Eyebrows 9 points and 8 rebounds, Reeves 8 points, Schroder 9 points and 4 assists, Russell 2 points and 2 assists; Porter had 8 points and 5 rebounds, Gordon 13, Jokic 10 points, 4 rebounds, 8 assists and 2 blocks, Pope 10 points and Murray 15 points.