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LeBron James knew as soon as he poked the ball away from Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, watched the ball sail out of bounds and saw the referee signal that the Nuggets would keep possession.
The Lakers star wanted head coach Darvin Ham to challenge the call with just over nine minutes remaining in the fourth quarter Saturday, with Los Angeles leading by 15 and needing a Game 4 win to stay alive in their first-round NBA playoff series.
But when Ham opted not to challenge, James kept pointing, yelling and pleading — a little bit of everything to try and convince his coach to force a review — for nearly 15 seconds.
Play had resumed by that point, with Jamal Murray finishing a layup while James still yelled at and stared toward his bench.
“He compounded the problem by not paying attention, and then Denver got the easy basket,” ESPN play-by-play broadcaster Dave Pasch said.
The Lakers still survived with a 119-108 win to secure their first victory of the series and send it back to Denver, and Ham ended up using — and winning — a coach’s challenge with 42 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter.
Neither James nor Ham were asked about the exchange during their postgame press conferences.
James led Los Angeles with 30 points, while Anthony Davis added 25 points and 23 rebounds, and they sparked the Lakers’ first win against Denver since Dec. 16, 2022 — snapping an 11-game losing streak that includes the Nuggets’ sweep in the Western Conference finals last year.
“The only opportunity for us is just to play the next game, and we’ve given ourselves another life,” James told reporters postgame. “We gave ourselves another lifeline, and it’s a one-game series for us. So Monday’s game … is the most important game of the season for us, and we understand that.”
remaining in the fourth quarter instead. USA TODAY Sports
This time, the Lakers won by overcoming Nikola Jokic’s 33 points and Michael Porter Jr.’s 27, and they built a 13-point lead in halftime and kept it intact — to some degree, even as the Nuggets attempted to mount a comeback — across the final 24 minutes.
Los Angeles, which secured the conference’s No. 7 seed with a victory against the Pelicans in the play-in tournament, will need another win Monday night in Denver to extend their series to a Game 6.
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