LeBron James says the Los Angeles Lakers will continue to “play until the wheels fall off” despite being on the brink of play-off elimination.
The Lakers were beaten 112-105 by the Denver Nuggets to fall 3-0 behind in the best-of-seven series, despite James’ 26 points on 12-for-20 shooting.
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Only he and Anthony Davis (33 points) were able to stand up to a confident Nuggets side that have now won their last 11 games with the Lakers.
“We’ve been – me and this guy [Davis] have been playing together for six years,” James said.
“We’ve been to the mountain top. We’ve been close to the mountain top. We’ve played a lot of games. We know what it takes to win. We know what it takes to win a championship and how damn near perfect you got to be.”
Unfortunately for James and Davis, their team-mates were a long way from perfect as the Nuggets overcame a rough start to pull away in the third quarter.
It leaves the Lakers in a miserable position ahead of Game Four, in LA, on Saturday.
“It’s one game at a time, at this point,” James said. “You lose, you go home. So we’re going come in with the mindset of, ‘Let’s get one.’ Force a Game Five and then we go from there. So as long as you still have life, then you always have belief. I just think you play until the wheels fall off.”
Had a night, fellas pic.twitter.com/r5gzjgRNMe
— Denver Nuggets (@nuggets) April 26, 2024
Denver were led by Nikola Jokic, who scored 24 points and added 15 rebounds.
The Serbian was predictably not getting carried away despite the Nuggets’ strong position and their seemingly unbreakable hold over the Lakers.
He said: “I think every game is tougher and tougher. They were up 20 in Denver; they were up 12 today in the first half.
“I think it’s really hard to play against the same team over again. You can’t get bored with the style of the play or whatever. You just need to keep doing you, especially for us – because we won the last three – and just trust what we are doing and don’t get bored with success because it can go wrong really quick.”
