Lakers News: Denver Looking For Clean Sweep Of Los Angeles Monday
After beating your Los Angeles Lakers by double digits for the first time in three tries, in LA no less, the Denver Nuggets are looking to shut the door on their season for good.
Denver, the top seed in the West with a 53-29 regular season record, currently leads the seventh-seeded Lakers 3-0 in their ongoing, best-of-seven Western Conference Finals playoff series.
A former teammate of LeBron James' while with the Cleveland Cavaliers, veteran Denver reserve power forward/center Jeff Green, knows how dangerous James can be when given an inch. Which is why he wants the Nuggets to step on the Lakers' throats in Game 4 tomorrow night.
“We have to end it. We can’t give [James] life. Tomorrow, it has to end, "Green said, according to Harrison Wind of DNR Sports.
Per Green (via Wind), head coach Michael Malone had a fairly concise missive for his club after picking up the win on Saturday:
"Win tomorrow."
Malone elaborated during his own presser this weekend, Wind reports.
“Talk is cheap. We’ve got to go in there and do it," Malone said. "We had the same opportunity against Minnesota and lost Game 4.”
As Malone is alluding to, the Nuggets also led the Minnesota Timberwolves (whom if you'll recall the Lakers beat in the play-in tournament) 3-0 during the first round of the playoffs, before dropping a potential closeout Game 4 on the road. The Nuggets did wrap things up in five games, but clearly are hoping to make faster work of Los Angeles.
No team in NBA history has successfully mounted a comeback after trailing 0-3 in a playoff series, across 149 such prior instances.
The Lakers do boast two future Hall of Famers still performing at an All-Star level in LeBron James and Anthony Davis, though neither is in his prime, and several critical role players have dropped the ball as scorers (particularly D'Angelo Russell). Were Davis and James at the levels of their 2020 vintages, LA might have a shot. The current models will probably not be up to the task against this focused and formidable Denver club.
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