FINAL: LAL, 114—DEN,108
With the Game 4 victory, the Los Angeles Lakers was one-win away from returning the NBA Finals— the franchise's last Finals appearance was on 2010, the year they won their last Finals championship. And the Denver Nuggets must make a magical run again from a 3-1 disadvantage to halt that to happen, just like what they did against the Utah Jazz and the Los Angeles Clippers.
Anthony Davis again led the Lakers with 34 points and 5 rebounds, followed by their captain, LeBron James with a near triple-double outings of 26 points, 9 rebounds and 8 assists. Anthony Davis started the game strong by making all the first 10 points for his team.
Big man returns.
They obviously capitalize on their size as they have 12 offensive rebounds resulting into a 25-6 second chance points advantage. Dwight Howard started the game as a center and have his own double-double performance by grabbing 11 boards and 12 points. The veteran center is excellent in catching his teammates missed shots and made himself a shot or a slam. He's obviously avoiding to do some crazy antics and focus only in grabbing the boards. He made Jokic's life inside the paint miserable that put him into foul trouble.
Lakers zone.
The Lakers' zone and one man defense forced the Nuggets to make turnovers. Murray was defended hardly either by Danny Green or LeBron James and the other 4 players will intercept the passing lane, hence the 11 turnovers made by the Nuggets.
Playoff Rondo is back?
Rajon Rondo displayed his playoff form by adding some spark from the bench, he got 11 points, 7 assists and 5 rebounds.
Murray putting on a show.
On the other hand, Jamal Murray again have great performance by putting some big numbers in stat sheets. He got 32 points and 8 assists. He quite put a show by making a difficult reversed lay-up against leaping LeBron James. It was seems to be a dunk at first, but LeBron won't make it happen easily and attempted to block it head on, but Murray's athleticism let him changed his form and make a reverse. It was quite a replication of Michael Jordan's famous fake dunk shot.
Nikola Jokic only added 16 points and 7 rebounds.
3-1 again Nuggets! I'm hoping to Game 7! Haha