LeBron James gave the Denver Nuggets his best on Monday. It wasn’t enough.
Fueled by a historic triple-double from Nikola Jokić, the Nuggets clinched a 113-111 win and completed a 4-0 win over the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference Finals. With the win, the Nuggets continued their remarkable postseason success while also securing their first-ever NBA Finals appearance. They did so while overcoming the best postseason performance of one of the game’s all-time greats.
James started the game with flying colors, scoring 21 points in the first quarter while the Lakers took a 34-26 lead. He shot 7 of 9 from the field, including a 4 of 4 shot from 3-point range. A lob attempt from beyond the 3-point arc instead landed in the net for a basket, which boded well for the future.
The basket sparked an 8-0 personal run from James that gave the Lakers a 23-15 lead. He stayed hot throughout the half and didn’t leave the game until he made an early break to the locker with 4.3 seconds remaining. The Lakers led 73-58 at the break, propelled by James’ 31 first-half points.
Nuggets are coming back
But the nuggets were undeterred. Despite being 15 points behind, they had a 50% shot rate in the first half. They opened the third quarter with a 9-2 run to force a timeout from the Lakers. A layup by Kentavious Caldwell-Pope 7-21 in the third period extended the Nuggets’ run to 24-8 and gave them their first lead of the game at 82-81. James, who had played all but 4.3 seconds of the game, was scoreless throughout the Denver rally.
James got back on the scoreboard with a floater 2:47 to go. But a possible elimination against Los Angeles had worked in Denver’s favor as the Nuggets held a 36-16 lead in the third quarter and led 94-89 into the fourth quarter.
Jokić made history in the process. He finished Game 3 with 23 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists for his 8th triple-double of the playoffs. In the process, he broke the tie with Wilt Chamberlain for most triple-doubles in a single postseason.
Denver maintained its lead for most of the fourth quarter. But offensive fouls on Jokić on back-to-back possession led to back-to-back throws by the Lakers, with a dunk by Anthony Davis leveling the game 102-102 with 4:59 minutes remaining. Tensions on both sides increased.
From there, the game was a back-and-forth until the last minute. But like all of the postseason, the Nuggets made the big games when it ultimately mattered most. A Jokić layup in traffic with 51.1 seconds left gave Denver the final lead, 113-11.
The Lakers had two opportunities to respond but failed to score another basket. On the Lakers’ next possession, James launched a desperate fallaway jumper from the baseline that hit the side of the backboard as the shot clock ran out. With another chance to equalize four seconds from time, the Lakers looked to James again. This time he attacked the basket where he was met by a doubles team of Aaron Gordon and Jamal Murray. Gordon, who had disputed James’ previous miss, blocked the layup attempt and the game was over.
The Nuggets were in the NBA Finals. The Lakers experienced a mid-season turnaround and an unexpected playoff run as the play-in failed miserably against a superior Denver team.