On April 28, the first round of the NBA playoffs continued. The Los Angeles Lakers are at home and are in Game 4 of the series against the Denver Nuggets. The Lakers, who had their backs to the water, did not collapse like in previous games, and with the performance of four players scoring 20+, the Lakers defeated the Nuggets 119-108 and chased the series to 1-3.
Lakers: James 30 points and 5 rebounds, Davis 25 points, 23 rebounds and 6 assists, Reaves 21 points and 6 assists, Russell 21 points.
Nuggets: Porter 27 points and 11 rebounds, Jokic 33 points, 14 rebounds and 14 assists, Pope 14 points, Murray 22 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists.
In the first half of the first quarter of the game, the two sides went back and forth, and the gap did not widen. The Lakers scored six straight points in the middle to give a seven-point lead over the Nuggets at 19-12. Porter and Jokic helped the Nuggets chase down by only two points, and the Lakers scored five straight points to pull away again. At the end of the first quarter, the Lakers led the Nuggets by five points at 28-23.
Midway through the second quarter, Reaves scored seven straight points to lead the Lakers to a double-digit lead at 48-37 at 4:24. Davis' 2+1 and James' layup helped the Lakers continue to extend their lead. At halftime, the Lakers had a 61-48 lead to 13 points.
In the third quarter, the Nuggets went on an 8-0 run to tie the score to 70-77 at 3:41. Vincent's three-pointer helped the Lakers stabilize the situation, and after that, the two teams maintained a gap of about 10 points on the court, and the Lakers did not collapse in the third quarter as they did in previous games, and the Lakers led by 11 points at 91-80 at the end of the third quarter.
The Lakers went on a 7-0 run in the final quarter, and Russell's three-point shot in 5:58 helped the Lakers lead 106-87 to 19 points. The Nuggets didn't give up, scoring six straight points to chase 93-106. Pope hit a three-pointer and Murray scored on a layup, and the Nuggets chased it to 103-111 with 1:47 left to go. James scored two points to help the Lakers stabilize the situation, and Jokic 2+1 once chased the difference to only 7 points, but after that, the Nuggets were unable to further narrow the difference. At the end of the game, the Lakers won 119-108.