The Los Angeles Lakers put up a fight but were ultimately swept by the Denver Nuggets after losing Game 4, 113-111.
Dennis Schroder got the start in place of D’Angelo Russell and was a spark plug as he drained a three-pointer and picked Jamal Murray’s pocket to help give the Lakers an early 11-4 lead. However, the Nuggets responded thanks to Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who drained back-to-back three-pointers to make it a 15-15 game.
LeBron James was clearly on a mission early and was able to help restore order for Los Angeles after scoring eight consecutive points to briefly give them an eight-point lead before Nikola Jokic found Aaron Gordon and Caldwell-Pope for good looks. James continued his torrid start by hitting more shots from distance, and Los Angeles would take a 34-28 lead into the second.
James keyed a 7-0 run early in the second with his play on both ends of the floor, getting a steal that led to a Tristan Thompson dunk and following it up with a layup to up the Laker advantage to 10. The King took exception to a hit from Aaron Gordon, which resulted in double technical fouls and perhaps fueled James to continue playing with aggression.
James cut through the Nuggets defense to score at the rim, handing the Lakers their largest lead of the series at 13 points. Denver started to see more three-pointers to go down to close the half, but L.A. would go into the locker room leading 73-58 thanks to an incredible 31 points from James.
The Nuggets got off to a quick start in the third, reeling off a 7-0 run to cut the Laker lead to eight. Jokic continued to pick apart L.A.’s defense and trimmed their halftime lead all the way down to three.
Caldwell-Pope gave the Nuggets their first lead of the night off a perfect pass from Jokic before Anthony Davis tied things back up with a lay-in on the other end. Much like the other games in this series, Denver took over the momentum with a sustained run and left Los Angeles staring at a 94-89 deficit.
Thompson injected some life into the team with an and-one opportunity and a block on the other end to pull them within two. Jokic’s passing and scoring, though, kept Denver ahead.
Davis seemed to wake up after throwing down a dunk, but Jokic found Gordon for an and-one that pushed the Nuggets’ lead back to six. The Lakers made one last push in the closing minutes, though Jokic got a tough hook shot in the paint to go to make it 113-111 Nuggets. On the final possession of the game, James got his final shot blocked, and the purple and gold were eliminated.
