Paper Guiluo City | Win the battle of G4 dignity Whether the Lakers can hold on longer depends on the supporting role

Basketball in L.A

2024-04-30 07:00Published in Jilin Sports Creators

Paper Guiluo City | Win the battle of G4 dignity Whether the Lakers can hold on longer depends on the supporting role

On Saturday, during a timeout in the middle of the third quarter at the Crypto arena, three young Lakers fans stood in a corner on the ground floor of the arena, each holding placards. They wrote: Please... Step up your game... Play.

Lakers fans are understandably demanding because they are facing the defending NBA champions Denver Nuggets, who have won 11 straight against the Los Angeles Lakers and are just one win away from sweeping the Lakers in the playoffs for the second year in a row.

But that's what competitive sports are, you never know what's going to happen. The night was both real and unexpected. I mean, who would have predicted that Los Angeles Lakers guard D'Angelo Russell would go from being criticized to making a splash, and who would have predicted that Nuggets star Jamal Murray would do everything in his power to emulate Russell?

On this night, the Lakers not only played hard, but also won the eventual victory, beating the Nuggets 119-108 to drag the first round of the playoffs between the two sides into Game 5.

"We gave ourselves another way out, we had a lifeline, and it was a series for us. "

After a dismal loss against the Nuggets two days ago, it would have been easy for Russell and the Lakers to arrange vacation plans. Russell failed to score in 24 minutes, and the Lakers collapsed in the second half of their third straight game of the series, which not only put them on the brink of playoff elimination, but also against an undefeated opponent: History.

No NBA team has ever managed to come back from 3-0 down to win a seven-game series — 151 teams have tried, and 151 have failed. The Lakers could be on that list as soon as Monday night (the Suns are already the 152nd).

If Saturday night's game wasn't a postponement of the inevitable result, it means trusting Russell to continue playing as well as he did on Saturday, finishing with 21 points, four assists and four rebounds. At this point, there's nothing in his past to suggest he can stay that way. I also don't believe Murray will shoot 9-of-23 from beyond the three-point line like he did on Saturday, with 0-of-4 from beyond the three-point line.

Whatever the Lakers said after the game — and they used the "Game Win or Lose" slogan — it could well be their last ditch. This game is more about representing dignity than backing up their true belief in the Nuggets' four-game winning streak from an 11-game losing streak. It's easy to trust James and Anthony Davis, who scored 25 points and 23 rebounds, and their performance in the series was amazing. The problem is in the supporting roles in the lineup.

Did this team do well enough on this night? But a broken clock will be accurate once or twice a day. The challenge is to get the role players to be able to step up consistently. When they do, the Lakers can play against anyone. We saw that on Saturday and sometimes throughout the series.

In fact, the Lakers couldn't have won Game 4 without Russell's key contributions in the second half, especially in the middle of the fourth quarter. When the Nuggets tried to play their own offense in the final moments, he stopped the Nuggets offensive wave with a layup, an offensive rebound that was pushed to Davis for scoring, an assist on James' dunk, and his own three-pointer. He helped his team score four times in a row, and the Lakers extended their 97-84 advantage to the biggest lead of the night at 106-87.

Lakers guard Austin Reaves said: "He's been amazing. He had a trademark offense where he made quick shots of two or three and it felt like a 12-0 scoring spurt. With his style of basketball, we need him to play at the highest level to be successful. He did it tonight. You have to pay tribute to players like that. After the third game, the whole world was scolding him for his performance. It's much easier than you think about all these distractions. But it just shows how much we need him. "

For most of Russell's career, the shadow of immaturity has hung over him. That's one of the reasons why the eighth-year player is now playing for his fourth team and his second time with the Lakers, who originally drafted him with the second overall pick in 2015. Russell's talent has always been there, but the focus and consistency have not, which is why it has been difficult for the Lakers to beat the Nuggets.

On Saturday, they got a lot of things right. Russell played well, while Murray didn't, Denver had just five second-offense points and nine offensive rebounds, and the Lakers kept the pace in the third quarter for the first time in the series. They trailed 32-30 in the quarter, but that was a big improvement over their previous games, including a 22-34 deficit on Thursday night.

Davis said: "We have a lot of confidence in the team. We took the lead a lot of times in this series, but in the second half, actually in the third quarter, we didn't play as well as we should. We have not lost faith at any time. ”

Several players said they didn't see the fourth game as a knockout match because everyone knows the reality of the situation. Instead, they did what coach Darwin Hamm suggested – they took the opportunity to compete and enjoy the joy of playing freely.

"Everything we've been through as a team, on and off the pitch, we deserved it tonight," Hamm said. We just need to hold that feeling and keep working on it and really understand that this could be our moment. Why can't it be us?

The answer may be revealed in Denver on Monday night.

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