After the Lakers took out the defending champion Warriors in six games in the NBA Western Conference semi-finals, they were the favourites to win the NBA finals. The Denver Nuggets, however, pulled the rug from under them with a 3-0 series lead ahead of Game 4 on Monday.
The Monday game would probably change history regardless of its outcome.
If the Lakers won, they’d have a chance in history to be the first team to recover from a 3-0 deficit to win a best-of-seven series in the NBA playoffs.
If the Nuggets won, it would be the first time in franchise history that the Nuggets went to the N.B.A finals.
Needless to say, the pressure was on for both teams.
LeBron James was the best player during the first half, scoring 31 points and putting the Lakers ahead with a score of 73-58. It felt like a chance of a comeback was on their side until the second half happened.
Despite LeBron’s efforts to put his team in the lead in the first half, the Nuggets forced their way back in the third quarter with a 36-16 lead after a 15-point deficit at halftime. LeBron scored only 10 points in the second half.
Ultimately, Denver’s Aaron Gordon’s block on LeBron’s potential score-tying shot in the final seconds cemented the Denver Nuggets’ four-game sweep of the Lakers in the Western Conference finals with a 113-111 victory on Monday.
Denver will face the winner of the Eastern Conference finals, in which the Miami Heat have a 3-0 series lead over the Boston Celtics.
