Anthony Davis scored 34 points, LeBron James added 26, and the Los Angeles Lakers never lost their lead in the last three quarters on their way to a 114-108 win over the Denver Nuggets in the fourth game of the Western Conference Finals on Thursday. night.
The seeded Lakers lead 3-1 in the series and are just one win away from the NBA Finals. Game 5 is scheduled for the early hours of Sunday morning (2 a.m.), live on Sky Sports Mix (Ch 416).
Jamal Murray speeded up the Nuggets with 32 points and eight assists, but missed all three of his three-point attempts.
Los Angeles topped both of their previous series 3-1 before closing the Portland Trail Blazers and the Houston Rockets at their first opportunity to advance. Meanwhile, the third seed Nuggets finds himself in familiar territory with a 3-1 deficit. They also trailed the Utah Jazz and the Los Angeles Clippers 3-1 in their first two rounds before stunting each with three games to move forward.
After losing for the first time in the series on Tuesday, the Lakers advanced by 10 points in the first quarter, 12 in the second and 11 in the third before the Nuggets recovered within 87-86 in a pair of free throws for Monty Morris with 11:14 remaining in the game.
Denver snapped in 105-102 and got the ball after Davis’ spin. However, James pressed Murray in a short-term foul, and Ragon Rondo hit the other end to take a five-point lead by 2:48.
The Los Angeles advantage was still five when James missed a jump with 1:05 to play. However, Lakers’ Kentavius Caldwell Pope snatched the offensive rebound and fouled James Nuggets, whose bad shot opened 59 seconds before the lead by 111-104 and cemented the victory.
Free throws from Rondo (one) and Davis (two) then secured the victory and put the Lakers one win away from their first NBA Finals appearances since they won the title in 2010.
Davis, the series’ top scorer, scored 10 of his 15 shots and went 13 to 14 at the free throw line. The Lakers, for the second time in the four matches, used a wide variation in foul shots to outpace Denver 28-20 at the streak and beat the Nuggets advantage by 50.6% to 47.5% on goal shooting.
Dwight Howard rises to the edge in Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals
James shot 11-14 on the goal line and joined Davis in the pounding of Nuggets’ senior legs Nikola Gokic and Paul Millsap in trouble. James also found time for nine rebounds and eight assists in the match.
Four other Lakers players scored double figures, with Caldwell Pope scoring 13 goals, Dwight Howard 12 completing 11 rebounds, Rondo 11 and Kyle Cosma 10.
Denver’s Jeremy Grant finished with 17 points, Jokic 16, Michael Porter Jr. 13, eight high rebounds, and Morris 12.
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