Lakers fans may not like this crazy Aaron Gordon Game 3 stat because it's really the last stat LeBron James wants to face.
Aaron Gordon led the team to a comeback victory in Game 3 of the Nuggets vs. the Lakers, and unfamiliar with it would have thought that the Nuggets had a Big 3 roster.
For the Los Angeles Lakers, a lot went wrong in their first-round series against the Denver Nuggets.
Los Angeles were led by double digits in all three games of the series, trailing 0-3 and facing elimination after crashing in the second half of Game 3 on Thursday night local time.
It's a different game for the Lakers, but the story is the same, and they've lost their 11th straight game to the Nuggets, dating back to last January.
To be honest, the Nuggets have dominated the Lakers for the past two years, and there's nothing wrong with it.
Los Angeles got off to a hot start after the first quarter to take a 10-point lead. After that, the Lakers' offense became lukewarm, averaging 21 points in the second and third quarters. That turned their lead into an eight-point deficit at the start of the fourth quarter.
After four minutes into the third quarter, the Nuggets took a 62-61 lead, and they never fell behind again.
To put it simply, Russell is 0 in 7, which can be said to be a performance of the Lakers' offense, but Aaron Gordon's data shows that the Lakers' defense is not good.
Aaron Gordon scored his all-time high 29 points for the Nuggets, the 28-year-old's new playoff personal scoring record.
Incredibly, according to Nicky Goel, Gordon scored more points in Game 3 than the Lakers' bench combined in Game 2 and Game 3.
In Game 3, the Los Angeles bench contributed 19 points, compared to just six in Game 2.
To be honest, the Lakers can't attack or defend, and even Gordon can get what he wants, what is James doing.
LeBron James, Anthony Davis and Austin Reaves combined for 81 points in Game 3, and the other five Lakers players who took the game combined for 24 points, including D'Angelo Russell's nil, his first clean sheet in the NBA playoffs.
Truth be told, Reaves and James still struggled to score after the game lost suspense, which is an act of injecting water into the Lakers' offense and must be eliminated.
The Lakers are facing an impossible dilemma at a life-and-death juncture, and James can't even guard against Gordon, so reposition himself early and don't be the boss of the Lakers.
So far, the Lakers have done little good in this series. They have to feel like they deserve to win at least one of their three games, but they haven't had enough time to adjust because their season is up in the balance.
To compete for an NBA championship, the entire rotation needs to contribute. It may be unfair to see the Lakers as competitors, but it makes at least some sense considering that the team has two future Hall of Famers.
Anthony Davis has done his best in this series, but James hasn't done much on the defensive end, and the pair have combined for at least 58 points in all three games and have shot efficiently along the way.
But a duo can't win an NBA playoff series, and they can't seem to win even a game.
The Lakers faced the Nuggets in the Western Conference Finals last year, and they must have been looking forward to it. A year later, Los Angeles still doesn't match Denver, and that's already evident in the 12 seasons of competition.
The Lakers need more to be a real contender, and it looks impossible to miraculously change the timing to turn this series — and their season — around it. For the Lakers, it's not long before they're back to square one, and their future will be fraught with questions again.