When answering questions after his team’s win over the Denver Nuggets Lakers coach Darvin Ham asked a question of his own.
“Why not us?” he asked.
Why not the Lakers?
Why can’t the Lakers be the first in NBA history to come back from a 3-0 deficit in a playoff series?
In your 119-108 victory in Game 4, the Lakers proved what was evident in their losses in each of their first three games.
They can play with the current NBA champions. They can beat the defending NBA champions.
So once again, why not them?
Why not the Lakers?
LeBron James came out swinging on Saturday night, scoring a team-high 30 points.
See more information: Lakers defeat Nuggets to avoid elimination: ‘We gave ourselves another life’
Anthony Davis dominated the boards, collecting 23 rebounds to match his postseason career high.
D’Angelo Russell It is Austin Reaves knocked down shots that preserved the Lakers’ lead, each of them contributing 22 points.
Nuggets guard Jamal Murray was kept under control. Forward Aaron Gordon was completely shut down.
That’s what this Lakers team was created to do. This was the vision of this team when the core of the previous season’s team remained intact. This was how this team was expected to win games – with James and Davis controlling the game; with two of the other starters establishing themselves as legitimate scoring threats; with the defense stifling the opponent over the course of 48 minutes.
The Lakers have already done this once. They may still have a three-games-to-one deficit, but why can’t they do it again and again and again?
They snapped an 11-game losing streak to the Nuggets in Game 4, avoiding the kind of second-half collapse that cost them the previous three games of this series.
The Lakers were outscored again in the third quarter, but by only a 32-30 margin. They entered the fourth quarter with a 91-80 lead.
“Obviously, we just talked about how we have to sustain our effort, we have to sustain our energy,” James said. “I thought the third quarter was very important.
“We scored with them.”
Of the 192 minutes played in this series, the Lakers were ahead in more than 136 of them. Outside of a few stretches, they outscored the Nuggets. This series could easily be tied.
Which isn’t to say that the Lakers’ troubled periods weren’t reflections of larger issues.
Their best player, James, is 39 years old, and their second best player, Davis, is 31 years old. The Lakers have been overly reliant on them for offense because of the inconsistencies of Russell, Reaves and Rui Hachimura.
Russell somehow went scoreless in Game 3. Reaves scored a combined 22 points in Games 1 and 2. Hachimura is averaging six points per game in this series.
There’s a reason the Lakers were ranked low enough to have to face the defending champion Nuggets in the first round.
But what if they can continue to stop Murray from taking control of games? Murray is shooting just 38% this series, down from 48.1% in the regular season.
What if they can lock Gordon down the same way they did in Game 4 when they limited him to seven points? In the previous game, Gordon scored 29 points.
“They’re going to make adjustments,” James said. “They are a great team. They are super well trained. We have to be able to counter their attacks, but also to enter with the same mentality that we have to sustain our effort, we have to sustain our energy. We are here to do this. Keep attacking and try to keep them [at bay] on the things we can control, like counterattack points.”
The Lakers gave up just 12 points on the fast break, which encouraged James. He also highlighted how they only conceded nine offensive rebounds and five second-chance points.
Game 5 will be in Denver.
See more information: Lakers believe they ‘have the talent’ to beat Nuggets
James asked his team not to look beyond that.
“Our next task is Monday’s game,” he said, “and we’ll see what happens.”
If the Lakers win and force the series to return to Los Angeles, who knows what could happen?
Ham described each game as a new opportunity – “a new opportunity to be more competitive, more together, more selfless.”
It’s also an opportunity to do something no team has ever done.
Why not?
Why not them?
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This story originally appeared on Los Angeles Times.
