The Los Angeles Lakers were able to narrowly avoid elimination on Saturday but their work is still only just beginning in this series. In a chat with the media after the unexpected Game 4 victory, James revealed his team's mindset for the rest of the series and said they would only take it one game at a time.
"The only opportunity for us is to play the next game and give ourselves another lifeline. It's a one-game series for us. Monday's game is the most important game of the season for us and we know that. We know that. If you lose you're done, if you win you keep going. So, it's not much to talk about," said James via Jovan Buha. "We won this game and that was most important and now we gotta start focusing on the next one. We wanna try to play good basketball and focus on the next task, focus on Monday's game, and see what happens."
LeBron finished the game with 30 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 assists in 39 minutes. He was the leading scorer for his team and set the tone for them offensively with his aggressive play all night long. While it was far from a seamless win for the Lakers, they were finally able to close the deal down the stretch and maintain their double-digit lead in the second half.
With Game 5 back in Denver, the Lakers will face their toughest challenge yet this Monday to defeat a Nuggets team that went 33-8 at home during the regular season. After suffering their first loss of the playoffs tonight, the Nuggets are unlikely to let another game slip through their fingers and they will be playing with heightened intensity to close out the series in 5 games.
LeBron James Will Never Give Up
Things are looking pretty bleak for the Lakers, and it's been this way for months now. Even amid some impressive wins, the team was unable to move into the top 6 in the standings and they weren't far off from missing the post-season entirely. The Western Conference has just passed them by and new teams like the Timberwolves and Oklahoma City Thunder are taking control of the West for themselves.
And while it's evident that the Lakers don't have enough to compete with these teams, it hasn't stopped LeBron from fighting with everything he has on the court. When it comes to making impossible comebacks, LeBron James is uniquely qualified to lead the charge.
Back in 2016, James completed his most impressive championship run to date: a win over the 73-9 Warriors. The Cavaliers were down 3-1 at one point in the series and all hope seemed lost of making a comeback against one of the greatest teams in NBA history.
But thanks to amazing heroics from James and his co-star Kyrie Irving, the Cavaliers managed to win the Finals that year in a miraculous story that will be re-told forever. If LeBron and the Lakers can capture a similar magic in this series, it may just be enough to make things interesting against Denver.
If not, then at least they can say they went down swinging and LeBron James can rest a little bit easier knowing his resume isn't tainted by being swept in back-to-back years by the same team.
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