I hope all of these former Lakers will be at https://t.co/84m3Xn4eID Arena tonight to root for their fellow Lakers to pull off the first comeback from 0-3 deficit in NBA history. https://t.co/q9fuhhIMUG

— LakerTom (@LakerTom) April 27, 2024

Darvin Ham receives harsh chant from Lakers fans as Nuggets take 3-0 lead https://t.co/dvGTJrVobU

— LakerTom (@LakerTom) April 26, 2024

Los Angeles Lakers fans have seen just about enough of Darvin Ham.

The Lakers made it 11 straight losses to the Denver Nuggets on Thursday, falling in Game 3 of their first-round playoff series 112-105. Once again, the Lakers blew a double-digit lead (as they already had in both Games 1 and Game 2) and brought to themselves to the brink of elimination as Denver took a commanding 3-0 series advantage.

In the final minute or so of the fourth quarter with the Nuggets on the verge of victory, Lakers fans busted out a harsh message about head coach Darvin Ham.

They started chanting, “Fire Darvin!” and could be heard doing so on the TNT broadcast.

Jovan Buha of The Athletic confirmed that “Fire Darvin!” was indeed what was being chanted.

Ham is in his second season as head coach of the Lakers and has led the team to a respectable record of 90-74 (.549) as well as a Western Conference Finals berth. But they were already swept out of the playoffs by the Nuggets last season and are now in grave danger of meeting the exact same fate this time around.

Windhorst: Lakers' Anthony Davis Blamed Darvin Ham for G2 Loss with Postgame Comments https://t.co/3OQjyU2UrS

— LakerTom (@LakerTom) April 26, 2024

Los Angeles Lakers star center Anthony Davis made pointed comments about the coaching in the team’s devastating Game 2 loss to the Denver Nuggets, and one expert believes they indicate a deeper problem with head coach Darvin Ham.

While debating Davis’ comments on Thursday’s episode of First Take, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst said they show that the big man feels that Ham should be held accountable for the Lakers blowing a 20-point lead and falling into a 0-2 hole in their first-round playoff series.

“You guys are dancing around your point, which is that Anthony Davis blamed Darvin Ham for this loss,” Windhorst said around the 5:20 mark. “That is exactly what he did. He did that very clearly with those comments.”

If the Los Angeles Lakers’ season ends with a sweep in Game 4 of their first-round series against the Denver Nuggets, Darvin Ham is going down with the same guys who got them there.

“I’m not changing my starting lineup,” Ham said Friday after L.A. had a film session in lieu of practice.

Down 0-3 against the Nuggets a year ago in the Western Conference finals, Ham took D’Angelo Russell out of the starting lineup for Game 4, which L.A. lost 113-111.

This time, with Russell going scoreless on 0-for-7 shooting in Game 3 (0-for-6 from 3) and seemingly disengaged from the team in the fourth quarter Thursday as he sat on the end of the bench by himself while L.A. huddled, Ham is sticking with his point guard.

“You want to give your players a chance to make good for themselves,” Ham said. “There were questions about that after Game 1 and you saw what we did in Game 2. He got back in the gym, as he’s always done, and worked on his stuff. And he provided a great source of income in Game 2. Although we came up short, he was one of the reasons we were able to be in the game.”

Indeed, Russell — who declined to speak to reporters Friday again after also declining to do so in the postgame window following Game 3 — shook off a 6-for-20 shooting performance to start the series by scoring 23 points in Game 2 and tying a franchise record for playoff 3s in a game, going 7-for-11.

“You have to trust your players,” Ham said. “And just believe in them. And when they see that belief, then they tend to perform at a high level.”

Lakers forward Rui Hachimura said Ham showed clips of L.A. playing at a high level in the first quarter of Game 3 — jumping to an 8-0 lead and holding a 33-23 edge heading into the second — to let the Lakers see how they can hold their ground against the defending champs, despite Denver having now won 11 straight games in the matchup.

“We watched it and we talked about how we were going to continue that,” Hachimura said. “Just the same energy, same way we communicate, [the way] we do everything on the court.”

Hachimura said that the Nuggets’ continuity of their roster has been the difference-maker.

“We just don’t have enough experience,” Hachimura said, alluding to the fact that much of the roster came together at the trade deadline about 15 months ago. “They’ve been together for like five years.”

So, Hachimura was asked, even though the Lakers are on the brink of being swept for the second straight year and L.A. is a franchise that prides itself on its 17 championships as the standard, is this group worth keeping together to gain that experience?

“In my opinion, yes,” Hachimura said. “We have the guys here. We have the talent, for sure. I don’t think anybody can beat us, just the talent-wise. We just got to put everything together. … We have the guys that can beat any team in this league.”

Any team except Denver.

The Lakers will get a crack at it again Saturday (8:30 ET, ABC) for a chance to extend their season.

If not, they’ll begin an offseason during which many more questions about the viability of this group staying together will swirl.

“Guys are irritated, frustrated, fed up, ready to make a change in terms of not continuously going down this road,” Ham said. “And the overall theme [today] was just our mindset. [We can] belabor the problems and what’s gone on up to this point or shift our focus to, ‘How do we stay alive?'”

A win Saturday would provide life to the season for a few more days, at the very least.

“We’ve played some good basketball against Denver, it’s just that we haven’t been able to pull these out,” Ham said. “So hopefully tomorrow will be different.”

For Lakers and Darvin Ham, another blown lead to Nuggets leaves more questions than answers about future https://t.co/o2x47SII1H

— LakerTom (@LakerTom) April 26, 2024

As LeBron James took off from the dotted circle and dunked, the crowd roared at decibels that hadn’t been heard at Crypto.com Arena this season.

The Los Angeles Lakers stormed out to an 8-0 lead over the Denver Nuggets in fewer than two minutes. The building was rocking. Dozens of celebrities filled courtside seats. Los Angeles was still breathing in its first-round NBA playoff series against the Nuggets. After blowing two leads in losses in Games 1 and 2, the Lakers were building another early one.

And, just like in the previous games, it was only a matter of time until the Nuggets chipped away at the lead and secured another victory. Denver beat Los Angeles 112-105 to take a commanding 3-0 series lead and win for the 11th straight time over the Lakers.

By the end of the night, boos rained down on the team. A segment of fans started “Fire Darvin!” chants twice. D’Angelo Russell, after arguably his worst performance against the Nuggets in a long line of stinkers, declined to speak to the media.

The Nuggets effectively ended the Lakers’ season on Thursday night. No team has ever come back from a 3-0 series deficit. And these Lakers aren’t going to be the first team to do so against these Nuggets. At this point, it’s just a matter of if this is a four- or five-game series.

“It’s tough,” head coach Darvin Ham said. “Got to figure out a way to get one on Saturday to stay alive.”

It’s unclear if that’s possible for these Lakers, though. They’ve held double-digit leads and halftime leads in all three losses. But the Nuggets have an answer for anything the Lakers throw at them. It’s the same game on an endless loop. And now they’ve even beaten the Lakers at their own game, winning the points in the paint in two of three games and at the free-throw line in two of three games.

Denver’s physicality has stood out in the matchup. The Nuggets have a size advantage at all five starting positions. That, coupled with their knack for offensive rebounds, has helped them dominate L.A. even when their shots haven’t been falling (especially for Jamal Murray).

The Lakers aren’t making excuses, and acknowledge they need to try harder and are being outworked.

“I think Denver’s just beating us, to be honest,” Austin Reaves said. “You can talk about adjustments, you can talk about this and that, but at the end of the day, we got to go put our best foot forward in basketball games. You can talk about all the, everything else outside the talks of everything, but at the end of the day, you got to man up and go win games.”

For the second straight game, the Lakers only had three players in double figures with one role player (in this game Reaves) supporting Anthony Davis and James offensively. Davis had 33 points (14-of-23 shooting) and 15 rebounds. James posted 26 points (12-of-20 shooting), six rebounds and nine assists. And Reaves had 22 points (8-of-17 shooting), five rebounds and four steals.

James and Davis combined to shoot 69.4 percent. The rest of the Lakers shot just 38.3 percent (and only 30 percent if Reaves’ performance is removed).

That shooting number notably includes Russell, who went scoreless on 0-of-7 shooting (and 0-of-6 3-point shooting). Russell has now had two duds in the series, and in six out of the Lakers’ seven playoff matchups with the Nuggets over the past two seasons. He only played 24 minutes, including nine in the second half and four in the fourth quarter.

“It’s unfortunate, man,” Ham said. “He had some good looks that he just didn’t knock down. It’s as simple as that. Similar to Game 1. He was able to bounce back in Game 2 and I expect him to bounce back in Game 4.”

Rui Hachimura also struggled, scoring five points on 2-of-4 shooting. He only played 28 minutes as the Lakers downsized and relied more on their bench of Taurean Prince, Spencer Dinwiddie and Gabe Vincent.

In contrast, Nikola Jokić (24 points, 15 rebounds and nine assists) and Murray (22 points, five rebounds and nine assists) had plenty of help. Aaron Gordon posted a playoff career-high 29 points and 15 rebounds and Michael Porter Jr. added 20 points and 10 rebounds.

“They have a championship confidence,” Ham said. “That starting group has been together for a long time. Their net rating is off the charts as a starting group. They had guys step up and make plays.”

Before the series, James said the Lakers needed to play “mistake-free basketball” to have a shot against the Nuggets. When asked if he feels like that pressure has affected his teammates, James said that was a question for his teammates rather than him.

“You’re supposed to have anxiety and pressure — or feel the pressure,” James said. “That’s what it’s about. This is what the postseason is about. … You’d have to ask the individuals that question and see how they feel.”

James then looked at Davis and reaffirmed his confidence in the pairing as a championship-caliber duo.

“Me and this guy have been playing together for six years,” James said. “We’ve been to the mountaintop. We’ve been close to the mountaintop. 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 gotta be. That’s not like something that’s so crazy to obtain.

“I’ve been a part of it four times where you have to have the most perfect basketball to win. And I’ve done it with him. So I’m not a guy who you should ask because I don’t feel a way about anybody that doesn’t want to strive to be as close to perfect as possible.”

James and the Lakers are going to face a difficult offseason, with more questions than answers as of now.

Will Ham be back? How do the players feel with the totality of the season nearing? What happens with Russell? How can L.A. consider him a part of its future when he’s unplayable against the Nuggets? How can the Lakers add more size, athleticism and defense to their frontline?

In the meantime, the Lakers have at least one more game remaining in their season.

James, who has a career of firsts, said the key to achieving the impossible and coming back from a 3-0 series deficit is focusing on one game at a time.

“It’s one game at a time, at this point,” he said. “You lose, you go home. So we’re going come in with the mindset of, ‘Let’s get one.’ Force a Game 5 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.”

New story: The Lakers are on the brink of a sweep for the second straight year at the hands of the Nuggets. LeBron James says him and AD have what it takes to get it done in the playoffs, but what about the rest of the team? https://t.co/81JNfqQ3u9

— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) April 26, 2024

Having just logged the 285th playoff game of his career — clearing the entire Denver Nuggets starting five’s combined 275 — Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James spoke from plenty of experience when he detailed what it takes to thrive in the postseason after Thursday night’s 112-105 Game 3 loss.

“You’re supposed to have anxiety and pressure — or feel the pressure,” James said after Denver went up 3-0 in their first-round series, one win away from sweeping L.A. into its summer for a second straight year. “That’s what it’s about. This is what the postseason is about.”

With Anthony Davis to his right, James endorsed his and the Lakers center’s ability to perform when the games matter most. The pair combined for 59 points. James finished with 26 points on 12-for-20 shooting, six rebounds and nine assists, while Davis led L.A. with 33 points on 14-for-23 shooting and 15 boards.

He didn’t say the same for the rest of the Lakers, who were outplayed by a Denver team that had two players, Aaron Gordon and Michael Porter Jr., each top the 20-point plateau to back stars Nikola Jokic (29 points, 15 rebounds) and Jamal Murray (22 points, nine assists).

Asked if the Lakers were overwhelmed by the Nuggets’ level of execution, James said, “You’d have to ask the individuals that question and see how they feel. It’s hard for me just to be like, ‘This is what I think that guy feels.’ … I can’t do that. I’m not a mind reader. I don’t know.”

No one was able to ask Lakers point guard D’Angelo Russell that question. After going scoreless in Game 3 on 0-for-7 shooting (0-for-6 from 3), he declined to speak to reporters after the game, according to a team spokesperson.

“We’ve been — me and this guy [Davis] have been playing together for six years,” James continued. “We’ve been to the mountaintop. We’ve been close to the mountaintop. 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. That’s not like something that’s so crazy to obtain.”

It seems somewhat impossible for the Lakers against the Nuggets, however. They’ve lost 11 straight games against Denver, the fifth-longest active streak by any franchise against a team. And the four teams ahead of the Lakers on that list — Detroit, Houston, Charlotte and Portland — haven’t been remotely close to a championship in recent years.

Denver wasn’t untouchable in Game 3. L.A. opened with an 8-0 lead, causing the Nuggets to call timeout just a minute and 50 seconds after tipoff with the roof ready to blow off the building from the hometown fans. And just like the 12-point advantage the Lakers built in Game 1 and the 20-point lead they had in Game 2, they led by as many as 12 on Thursday.

Then came the third quarter, when Denver outscored them 34-22. The Nuggets have now outscored L.A. by 31 in third quarters through three games; in the nine other quarters, the Lakers have outscored the Nuggets by 11.

“Our third quarter’s been atrocious,” said guard Austin Reaves, the only Lakers player to score in double-digits besides James and Davis, albeit with 10 of his 22 points coming late in the fourth quarter after the Nuggets had taken control.

While the sullen expressions of the Lakers’ bench and coaching staff late in the game suggested this series is all but over, there is still another home game for L.A. to host Saturday in Game 4.

Davis said the Lakers must clean up their rebounding after giving up 19 second-chance points on 14 offensive rebounds, continue to get back in transition defensively and put more points on the board.

“We got to score,” Davis said. “We only had 20 in the second [quarter], 22 in the third. A team like that, who is going to score, we got to be able to score as well.”

The Lakers are averaging just 102.3 points in the series. L.A. averaged 124.4 points in the 12 wins it had in its final 15 regular-season games plus the play-in tournament leading into the Denver series.

The Nuggets, meanwhile, are staying on high alert.

“I think every game is tougher and tougher,” Jokic said. “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.”

Which is all L.A. can hope for at this point — some crack in the Nuggets’ foundation the Lakers can find to extend the season.

“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 5 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.”

LeBron & AD = 53 points
Jokic & Murray = 40 points

Rest of Lakers starters = 17 points
Rest of Nuggets starters = 49 points

— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) April 26, 2024

LeBron James: "It's one game at a time at this point… As long as you still have life, then you always have belief, you play until the wheels fall off. That's what it's always about for me as a mindset” pic.twitter.com/AhN6Crj8d9

— Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) April 26, 2024

LeBron James ended his presser by saying he can’t understand what it’s like to be a player who doesn’t strive for the “damn near perfect” basketball required to win in the playoffs pic.twitter.com/TKhQ3bsxjR

— Michael Corvo (@michaelcorvo_) April 26, 2024

LeBron James: “It’s the postseason. You’re supposed to have anxiety feel the pressure, that’s what it’s about…Me and this guy have been playing together for six years…We know what it takes to win a championship and how damn near perfect you’ve got to be.” #Lakeshow pic.twitter.com/UnyKYQ52tK

— Lauren Jones (@LoJoMedia) April 26, 2024