The Los Angeles Lakers won Game 4 of their Western Conference finals on Thursday, running away with a 114-108 win over the Denver Nuggets.
It was a close game throughout, but the early lead the Lakers gained in the first quarter was maintained throughout despite multiple late runs from Denver.
LeBron James and Anthony Davis led the Lakers with 26 points, nine rebounds, eight assists, and 34 points, five rebounds, three steals respectively. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope also made some big plays during the game notching up 13 points as well.
Jamal Murray proved very important for the Nuggets, scoring 32 points on 12-of-20 shooting to go with eight assists, but he was unable to bring his team all the way back from the early setback. Nikola Jokic on the other hand wasn’t able to give his usual production on the night and only finished with 16 points after missing several minutes of the fourth quarter due to foul trouble.
Denver are now 3-1 down in the series but, of course, that’s nothing new for them.
Watch the Game highlights below
The Nuggets became the first NBA team to come back from two 3-1 deficits in the same postseason by winning their two previous series, but can they do it again versus the Los Angeles Lakers to avoid elimination.
Meanwhile, the Lakers are one more game away from advancing to the NBA Finals. Game 5 is on Saturday.
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The Nuggets managed to keep the game tight enough that another Jamal Murray late-game outburst may have been enough to get them the win, but unfortunately for Denver, it never came.
Murray in the final six minutes of the game scored only four points and was held without a field goal. For some of those possessions, he was guarded by James, who said afterward that he used his length, athleticism, and basketball IQ on Murray to defend him without fouling.
With just under three minutes left, Murray, in one of the key possessions of the game drove to the basket with a good chance of cutting the lead to one point. Instead, he was met at the rim by James and missed the layup, leading to a Rajon Rondo mid-range jumper. The Nuggets weren’t able to cut the lead to less than five after the sequence.
James says after the game: “I knew it was winning time, and Jamal had it going. The kid is special”
“For me, it’s just trusting my defensive keys. Trusting my study of film. Trusting personnel. And living with the results. I told my teammates that I had him and everyone else can kind of stay at bay and stay home. I was able to get a couple stops and we were able to rebound the basketball, which is the most important thing.”
