The Los Angeles Lakers have held the halftime lead in every game so far of their first round series against the Denver Nuggets and yet find themselves in a 3-0 deficit following a seven point loss in Game 3 on Thursday night.
Now on the brink of elimination, the Lakers must try to do the impossible and become the first team to come back from that series deficit in NBA history. Teams have come close, however, and last year Gabe Vincent was part of a Miami Heat team that had a 3-0 advantage in the Eastern Conference Finals, but allowed the Boston Celtics to force a Game 7.
As such, Vincent knows it’s possible to fight back, but believes the Lakers have to take things one game at a time.
“No. It’s one game at a time,” Vincent said after the loss. “Just last season, I was up 3-0 and ended up in a Game 7. So crazier things have happened in the playoffs, it’s playoff basketball and fortunately we get another chance to play Saturday. We get a chance to keep the season extended.”
In order to extend their season, the Lakers will have to be better in the second half as the Nuggets have simply dominated the final two quarters throughout the series. And Vincent credited the Nuggets for simply executing better coming out of halftime.
“I think they just get more detailed. Their execution picks up, they’re a little more locked in than we are I think when they come out of the half,” Vincent added. “We’ve seen Denver throughout the year, they take advantage of any opportunity. That’s credit to them, they’re a well-coached team. They play hard, they do things the right way, they play ball the right way. So we got to put together 48 minutes to beat a team like this.”
The Lakers have been unable to put together a complete game against this Nuggets team so far, which is why they have now lost 11 straight to them. For Vincent, this is even a bit tougher as he only recently came back from injury. But the point guard is focused on doing whatever he can to help this team.
“Yeah, I mean obviously it’s tough adjusting to a new team and a new situation in general, and you add the surgery and missing a majority of the season,” Vincent noted. “I don’t even know what game it is for me now, it’s like my 14th or 15th or something like that.
“I’m just trying to find ways to impact winning, whatever I can in my minutes out there and whatever my role may look like or rotation may look like, it’s been different kind of game to game, so just doing whatever I can to help us win games and move the needle in a positive way.”
Vincent had some moments in Game 3, particularly defensively as he helped limit Nuggets star Jamal Murray to another off shooting night. But whatever the Lakers have done, it just hasn’t been enough so far and the team now has to figure something out quickly, or their season will be done on Saturday.
LeBron James: Lakers must do a better job closing vs. Nuggets
Finishing out games is something the Lakers have preached when facing the Nuggets as the games have often followed the same script. LeBron James discussed this prior to Game 3, noting that the Lakers have to figure out how to sustain the good stretches they have for the whole game.
“It’s all about sustainability,” James said after practice on Wednesday. “It doesn’t matter what you can do throughout the first 47 and a half minutes. You got to finish the game, which we didn’t do. We got to do a better job of that. Some of the things we’ve done over the first couple games, we’re very happy and excited about. But we got to do a better job of closing.”
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