Thursday night, the Los Angeles Lakers took a 3-1 series over the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference Finals by outscoring Denver 114-108 in Orlando, Florida.
Lakers’ stars LeBron James and Anthony Davis led their team to an important Game 4 win against a persistant Nuggets team, despite a strong performance by Nuggets Guard Jamal Murray. Davis scored 34 points and James scored 26 points to keep Denver from tying the series.
Key Performances
LA’s duo of Anthony Davis and LeBron James outperformed Denver’s duo of Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic by scoring a combined 60 points. Murray accounted for 32 and Jokic accounted for 16 of their team’s final score.
James and Davis capitalized on a hot start and getting to the free-throw line often. Davis scored the Lakers’ first 10 points, hitting all of his first five shot attempts. Davis and James shot 28 of the Lakers’ 35 free throw attempts.
Murray found most of his success inside the 3-point line, shooting 12-17 inside the arc. He also made all eight of his free throw attempts. The Lakers did, however, slow down Murray’s hot 3-point shooting streak. He missed all three of his 3-point attempts.
Dwight Howard also made an impact in tonight’s game by getting the start at Center for the Lakers. He finished the game with 12 points and shooting 5-6 from the floor. His agressive defense kept Nikola Jokic in foul trouble early and limited one of Denver’s biggest weapons on offense.
Denver Down, But Are They Out?
The Nuggets find themselves down 3-1 in the series, but they certainly have shown to be a resilient team in this year’s playoffs. Denver has been down 3-1 in both of their first two playoff series this year and won both of them. They became the first NBA team to ever come back from a 3-1 deficit in back-to-back series.
When faced elimination, the Nuggets have relied on Jamal Murray, who has averaged 32.6 points per game in elimination games. His production will be necessary for another legendary comeback.
Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals tips off at 9 p.m. Saturday night on TNT.
Matthew Covers Sports 