The Lakers lost again at home
In the first round of this season's NBA playoffs series, the Los Angeles Lakers swallowed another loss at home, losing to the Denver Nuggets 99-101. After this game, the Lakers have fallen behind 1-3 in four games, and are only one step away from being eliminated by the Nuggets.
As soon as the game opened, the two sides went back and forth, and the scene was very stale. The Lakers took the lead in opening the offensive with the full force of James and Davis. James had a hot hand this time, whether it was a mid-range shot or a breakthrough layup, which made the defense helpless. He slashed 30 points and 5 assists in the whole game, becoming the Lakers' top scorer in this game. Davis gave full play to the advantage of interior control, with a double-double of 25 points and 23 rebounds, making him the most solid defensive core of the Lakers.
At the end of the first half, the Lakers led the Nuggets by 13 points. At the beginning of the second half, the Lakers began to relax their defense, giving the Nuggets a chance to take advantage of it. Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray led the Nuggets on a frantic comeback, and their constant inside and outside offense threw the Lakers' defense into disarray.
The section determines the overall situation and the Lakers have been criticized
In the section that decided the course of the game, the Lakers' performance was disappointing. They scored just 18 points in the quarter, while the Nuggets scored 33 points to complete the Jedi Comeback. The Lakers were caught off guard in this quarter, with discipline on the defensive end and helpless on the offensive end.
After the game, many people in the Lakers team took the blame for the loss. First up was veteran Russell Westbrook, who had a terrible performance in the quarter, shooting 0-of-5 and making four turnovers at crucial moments. Westbrook was blamed for a lack of calm in the final moments, making a number of low-level mistakes.
The other one is Lakers coach Darren Ham. There have been comments that there are serious problems with Ham's presence at the festival. He failed to call a reasonable tactical timeout in time to lose control of the team at key moments, and he failed to make timely adjustments to keep the squad in top shape.
There are also people who excuse the Lakers. They believe that the Lakers were already in a relatively advantageous position with a 13-point lead in the first half. It's just that in the second half, the Nuggets showed a strong tenacious fighting spirit, and achieved a shocking reversal through the full flowering of the inside and outside lines.
The Lakers vowed to fight back and look forward to a more exciting matchup
Despite falling behind in this game, the Lakers didn't give up on that. After the game, players such as James and Davis said that they would give it their all in the next game and vowed to fight back in the series.
"Of course we are disappointed, but that will never break our morale. James said, "We will continue to fight until the last moment." In the next game, we will definitely give it our all. ＂
Davis expressed a similar determination: "We are not completely crushed, on the contrary, we will learn from this defeat. I believe that as long as we are the whole team with one mind, we will definitely be able to turn things around in the next games. ＂
Lakers coach Ham also expressed his approval of the team's performance. "I'm proud of the fighting spirit of the players. Even though we lost in the end, they showed the courage on the pitch to never give up. ＂
To achieve a big comeback in the series, the Lakers do face some practical difficulties. Their leading scorer Murray was injured in the last game, and his injury will directly determine how powerful the Lakers are on the offensive end.