The Los Angeles Lakers were defeated with a score of 99-101 in the second game of the first round series of the NBA playoffs, against the Denver Nuggets this Monday, in a duel where both Nikola Jokic and LeBron James were the undisputed leaders of both squads that fought until the end to achieve victory.
A match that was back and forth for both teams but at the time was widely dominated. by the Los Angeles team who managed to have a 20-point advantage in their favor, but who saw them lose from the third period of play.
Little by little the Denver team began to close the gap with its star player, the Serbian center Nikola Jokic in a stellar plan who was able to finish the actions with a triple double in his favor; 27 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists, having against players like Anthony David and the Japanese Rui Hachimura who could do little or nothing defensively to stop him.
LeBron James, for his part, finished the game close to the triple double and finished with quite positive numbers under his belt: 26 points, 12 assists, 8 rebounds, but it was not enough to avoid what was an epic comeback by the Denver team who saw their savior in Jamal Murray in the final second, like in the movies, hitting the winning shot with a step back against his defender Anthony Davis . Michael Porter Junior and Aaron Gordon were an important part of the Nuggets’ offense by contributing 22 and 14 points respectively.
In Los Angeles, Anthony Davis, although he ended the match with positive statistics that helped a lot to the team (32 points, 11 rebounds and 2 assists), the last period of play was one where the Lakers center was completely lost and did not contribute anything to the Lakers’ cause.
For his part, D’Angelo Russell, the squad’s point guard Angelina contributed by scoring 23 points, pulling down 3 rebounds and distributing 6 assists.
LeBron James raises his voice before the refereeing
After the heartbreaking loss, LeBron James was one of several players belonging to the Lakers who raised his voice and criticized the refereeing of the second game of the first round series, in the post-game press conference. “To be honest, I don’t understand what’s going on at the replay center,” James said.
It is not the first time that LeBron expresses himself on this topic, at the time and the most viral was when it was determined that his foot was on the three-point line in a loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves and out of bounds in a loss to the Golden State Warriors in regular-season games.
LeBron specifically objected to a foul that was not called by the Nuggets forwardMichael Porter Jr. on D’Angelo Russel at the end of the third quarter of play, which was annulled after Denver coach Michael Malone challenged the referee’s sanction.
“D-Lo clearly gets hit in the face during penetration,” James said. “Why the hell do we have a repetition center if it’s going to be like this? It doesn’t make sense to me.”
Through his X account (formerly Twitter), Russel wrote in a complaint about the aforementioned: “That is a mistake that we all saw on national television.”
The head of the referee team at the match, Scott Foster, announced through the megaphones in the venue that Porter’s contact was “marginal” and the decision was overturned. When James finished speaking at the podium at the post-match press conference, he left with the following words: “It’s f—ing stupid.”
Coach Darvin Ham also had words for the refereeing
Ham also raised his voice and made reference to the foul problem that center Anthony Davis had in the game.; Davis’ fourth foul came at the 2:41 mark of the third quarter as he set a screen/screen on Nuggets guard Kntavious Caldwell-Pope. At that precise moment the Lakers were up 74-63 and Ham made the decision to switch Davis to prevent him from adding more fouls. By then Davis had made 14 of 18 field goals. In the rest of the game he only attempted one shot in the middle of the fourth quarter that was missed.
“There is no remedy for foul problems,” Ham said. “It limits your player, it takes away all the aggressiveness.”
Jamal Murray was the difference in the fourth quarter
The Canadian point guard for the Denver Nuggets was the player of the game by scoring 14 of his 20 points in the last period of play, as well as the game-winning shot with the horn sounding.
LeBron James missed his last shot to end the match’s actions: A three-pointer from the top of the key with the score tied at 99 with 16 seconds left. “He had a very open look and he got out,” James said. “I mean, he went in and the pitch came out.”
LeBron James seemed quite focused and psyched facing the questions about how they will face the third match in Los Angeles, one that is vital for the Los Angeles squad to win and continue aspiring to overcome the series and advance to the next round.
“Protect the house,” James said. “That’s where my mentality goes. And obviously, the only game that matters now is Game 3 and how we can improve. How can we understand this team. So Game 3 is where my mentality is.”
The Lakers with the pressure of winning yes or yes at home
“Winning the third game,” Anthony Davis said. “It’s that easy. “Just win the third game,” were the words of the Los Angeles center when questioned by the press about what the Lakers team should do now in the face of this new motivation and inspiration from the Nuggets.
“We have stretches where we simply don’t know what we are doing on both ends of the court,” Davis said. “And those are the ones that cost us.”
“We did a lot of good things that gave us a chance to win all night,” said point guard D’Angelo Russell. “It came down to some things we couldn’t really control. “I like our fight.”
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