It may be just an illusion but the Los Angeles Lakers finally turning the Denver Nuggets 11-game win streak into a 1-game losing streak may have done more than just getting that Denver monkey off of L.A.’s back.

What looked like a hopeless situation with the Los Angeles Lakers on the verge of being swept in the playoffs by the Denver Nuggets for the second straight year has now suddenly been replaced by a bright glimmer of hope.
While no NBA team has ever come back from being down 0–3 in a 7-game series, the Denver Nuggets’ Game-4 stumble may have opened the door for LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers to make a historic comeback.

The Lakers face what is thought to be an impossible challenge to beat the world champion Nuggets three more straight times to pull off the NBA’s first comeback from 0–3 yet the task suddenly does not seem undoable.
The way the Lakers won last night has suddenly put the world back into proper perspective. The Nuggets are no longer unbeatable and down 1–3, all L.A. needs to do is win three more games to achieve the impossible.

Momentum is a fair weather friend and getting the Nuggets’ monkey off the Lakers’ back has changed the controlling dynamic of this series from the Nuggets’ sweeping L.A. to the Lakers pulling off the impossible comeback.
Win in Denver on Monday and the Nuggets will suddenly be the team in the pressure cooker with just a 2–3 lead heading back to L.A. for Game 6, hoping and praying not to become the first NBA team to blow an 0–3 lead.

So let’s look at what the Lakers’ odds are for taking down the Nuggets and winning the 2024 NBA Championship and how Los Angeles’ finally beating Denver has changed the dynamics of this critical first round playoff series.

What Are Lakers’ Odds of Winning?

There’s a reason why in the history of the NBA, no team has been able to come back after trailing 0–3 in a 7-game playoff series. In fact, Out of 154 teams who found themselves in that situation, none has ever come back.

The odds of the Lakers becoming the first NBA team in history to come back from an 0–3 playoff deficit are currently +1800, which means betting $100 on the Los Angeles to beat Denver in this series would win $1,800.
Taking this pipe dream further, the odds of the Los Angeles Lakers winning the NBA championship are currently +21000, which means betting $100 on the Lakers to win their 18th NBA championship would win $21,000.

While the Nuggets dominated the Lakers during their 11-game win streak, every game has been close and contested with the Lakers building first half leads but the Nuggets executing and closing out better to win the games.
The Nuggets obviously had the Lakers number during the 11-game stretch and took full advantage of their superior size and years of continuity to bully and punish the Lakers smaller lineups and unfamiliar players.

But that pattern may no longer hold now that the Los Angeles Lakers have figured out how to hold onto their first half leads and counter the Denver Nuggets’ second half pushes that cost them the series’ first three games.
With newfound confidence in their role players and no Denver monkey on their back, the Lakers have a unique opportunity to beat the champs three straight, including two in Denver, and turn the tables of embarrassment.

The Lakers surprisingly find themselves in a perfect scenario where they can turn a potential 4-game first round sweep into a historic odds-defying first-time-ever comeback from being down 0–3 in a 7-game playoff series.

How Has Lakers’ Win Changed Series?

Can one game turn around a series? The Lakers 11-game losing streak to the Nuggets may have been the Trojan Horse the Nuggets quietly worried about as ball bounces and big shots kept impossibly falling Denver’s way.

The Lakers’ Game 4 triumph over the Nuggets was not just LeBron James and Los Angeles winning a token single game before accepting their 4–1 ‘Gentlemen’s Sweep’ and making their upcoming reservations for Cancun.
The Game 4 win was the Lakers finally breaking through and doing the one thing that been their Achilles heel during the 11 straight losses they had suffered against the Nuggets: their inability to adjust and keep a lead.

The driving theme of every Lakers-Nuggets game this season has been the Lakers’ failure to hold onto double digit leads in the second halves and fourth quarters of games with the blame justly going on L.A.’s role players.
Game after game, the same story unfolded. Although every game was close and the pattern similar with the Lakers taking a lead and Denver coming back, the streak got crazy as the Nuggets were blessed and Lakers cursed.

That’s why Denver stopped talking about the winning streak and why they should be worried about how Game 4 started and ended. The Lakers again again got off to strong start but also learned how to hang onto the lead.
The Lakers have a solid formula to beat the Nuggets and, until Game 4, it’s been more their inability to execute that formula in second halves that’s hurt them than anything Denver has or can do defensively to stop them.

Denver is in a tough spot. They’re suddenly getting outplayed by the Lakers and the basketball gods are starting to want pay back for the ball bounces and big shots that led to that 11-game win streak. Lakers will win it in 7.

Who Needs To Step Up for Lakers?

The Los Angeles Lakers need LeBron James, Anthony Davis, D’Angelo Russell, Austin Reaves to have elite Games 5, 6, and 7 to come back and beat the Denver Nuggets in 7 games and continue the quest for #18.

That’s a big ask vs. Denver considering James age, Davis’ injury proclivity, Russell’s and Reave’s inconsistency but that’s what it will take to beat the world champs three times in a row, including twice in Mile High Denver.
On the other hand, that’s what it’s going to take to come back from down 0–3 against the world champion Nuggets. Come hell or high water, this is LeBron James glory story to write on his eternal campaign to be GOAT.

LeBron is wishing this into existence. What better way to crown his reign as GOAT than take down the world champs 4–3 in a reverse 4-game sweep on his way towards winning his 5th NBA championship and Finals MVP.
Time to cash in on all those bad calls and crazy bounces and hail Mary shots that benefited the Nuggets during that 11-game losing streak and see some ball bounces and big shots coming the Lakers way next 3 games.

The Lakers are outshooting the Nuggets from the field (49.9% to 46.0%), from deep (30.4%to 27.6%), and winning points-in-the-paint (58.5 to 57.5) but losing rebounding (46.3 to 40.50) and made-free-throws (15.0 to 13.5).
Offensively, the Lakers have 109.2 offensive rating, 112.7 defensive rating, and -3.5 net rating for the 4 playoff games. For Game 4, the Lakers posted an elite 115.5 offensive rating, 105.9 defensive rating, and +9.7 net rating.

The Lakers need to come out and play their best basketball game of the year on Monday night and turn the tables on the Denver Nuggets. L.A. has the momentum and the opportunity to pull off a miraculous comeback.

Why can’t the Lakers make history and come back in series to beat Nuggets? https://t.co/k5pz6v1ZZe

— LakerTom (@LakerTom) April 28, 2024

While fielding questions after his team’s victory over the Denver Nuggets, Lakers coach Darvin Ham asked a question of his own.

“Why not us?” he asked.

Why not the Lakers?

Why can’t the Lakers be the first in NBA history to come back from a 3-0 deficit in a playoff series?

In their 119-108 victory in Game 4, the Lakers proved what was evident in their losses in each of the first three games.

They can play with the defending NBA champions. They can beat the defending NBA champions.

So, once again, why not them?

Why not the Lakers?

Anthony Davis dominated the boards, collecting 23 rebounds to match his career postseason high.

D’Angelo Russell and Austin Reaves knocked down shots that preserved the Lakers’ advantage, each of them contributing 22 points.

Nuggets guard Jamal Murray was kept in check. Forward Aaron Gordon was completely shut down.

This is what this Lakers team was built to do. This was the vision for this team when the nucleus from the previous season’s team was kept intact. This was how this team was expected to win games — with James and Davis controlling the game; with two of the other starters establishing themselves as legitimate scoring threats; with the defense smothering their opponents over 48 minutes.

The Lakers have done it once. They might still have a three-games-to-one deficit, but why can’t they do it again and again and again?

They snapped an 11-game losing streak to the Nuggets in Game 4 by avoiding the kind of second-half collapses that cost them the previous three games of this series.

The Lakers were outscored in the third quarter again, but by only a 32-30 margin. They went into the fourth quarter with a 91-80 lead.

“Obviously, we’ve just been talking about how we have to sustain our effort, we have to sustain our energy,” James said. “I thought the third quarter was very important.

“We scored with them.”

Of the 192 minutes played in this series, the Lakers have been ahead for more than 136 of them. Outside of a few stretches, they have outplayed the Nuggets. This series could easily be tied.

Which isn’t to say the problematic stretches for the Lakers weren’t reflections of larger issues.

Their best player, James, is 39, and their second-best player, Davis, is an old 31. The Lakers have been overly dependent on them for offense because of the inconsistencies of Russell, Reaves and Rui Hachimura.

Russell somehow went scoreless in Game 3. Reaves scored a combined 22 points in Games 1 and 2. Hachimura is averaging six points a game in this series.

There’s a reason the Lakers were seeded low enough to have to take on the defending-champion Nuggets in the first round.

But what if they can continue to prevent Murray from taking over games? Murray is shooting just 38% in this series, down from 48.1% in the regular season.

What if they can lock down Gordon the way they did in Game 4, when they limited him to seven points? In the previous game, Gordon scored 29 points.

“They’re going to make adjustments,” James said. “They’re a great team. They’re super-well-coached. We have to be able to counter their attacks but also come in with the same mindset that we have to sustain our effort, we have to sustain our energy. We’re here to do that. Keep attacking, and try to keep them [at bay] in the things that we can control, like fast-break points.”

The Lakers gave up only 12 fast-break points, which encouraged James. He also pointed to how they conceded only nine offensive rebounds and five second-chance points.

Game 5 will be in Denver.

James called on his team to not look beyond that.

“Our next task is Monday’s game,” he said, “and we’ll see what happens.”

If the Lakers win and force the series to return to Los Angeles, who knows what can happen?

Ham described every game as a new opportunity — “a new opportunity for us to be more competitive, more together, more selfless.”

Also an opportunity to do something no team has ever done.

Why not?

Why not them?

Lakers, D’Angelo Russell avoid succumbing to Nuggets and history (for now) https://t.co/AOfFDLij88

— LakerTom (@LakerTom) April 28, 2024

During a timeout midway through the third quarter Saturday in Crypto.com Arena, three young Lakers fans stood in a corner of the lower bowl and held up separate placards. They read: PLEASE … PLAY … HARD.

The request was understandable considering their Lakers were battling history as well as the defending NBA champion Denver Nuggets, who had won 11 in a row against Los Angeles and were one victory from sweeping them out of the playoffs for the second consecutive year.

But that’s the thing about sports — you never really know what’s going to happen. And this night would turn out to be as surreal as it was surprising. I mean, who could have predicted that Los Angeles guard D’Angelo Russell would go from maligned to magnificent, or that Nuggets star Jamal Murray would do his best bad Russell impersonation?

On this night, the Lakers not only played hard, they won, beating the Nuggets 119-108 to force a Game 5 in their first-round playoff series.

“We’ve given ourselves another life,” LeBron James said after scoring 30 points, including 14 in the fourth quarter. “We’ve given ourselves another lifeline, and it’s a one-game series for us.”

It would have been easy for Russell and the Lakers to arrange vacation plans after a dispiriting loss to the Nuggets two nights earlier. Russell had failed to score in 24 minutes and the Lakers had collapsed in the second half for the third consecutive game this series, leaving them not only on the cusp of playoff elimination but also battling an undefeated opponent: history.

No NBA team has ever rallied to win a best-of-seven series after trailing 3-0 — 151 have tried and 151 have failed. The Lakers could add to that list (and so could the Suns and Pelicans) as early as Monday night.

To believe that Saturday night was anything other than a delaying of the inevitable is to believe Russell can continue to play as well as he did Saturday when he scored 21 points and had four assists and four rebounds. And at this point, there is nothing in his past to suggest that. Nor is there anything to persuade me to believe Murray will shoot 9-for-23 from the field and 0 of 4 from behind the arc again, as he did Saturday.

No matter what the Lakers said afterward — and they used the one-game-at-a-time mantra — this was likely their last stand. The game was about respect more than a true belief that they go from 11 consecutive losses to four consecutive wins against the Nuggets. Trusting James and Anthony Davis, who had 25 points and 23 rebounds, is easy. They’ve been phenomenal in the series. It’s the supporting cast that’s the problem.