This night the Los Angeles Lakers have taken a monkey off their shoulder, finally managing to beat the Denver Nuggets after a year and a half of defeats, given that the last success dates back to December 2022 (Russell Westbrook was still there in yellow and purple, so to speak). LeBron James’ 30 points and Anthony Davis’ 25+23 were enough for coach Darvin Ham’s team to interrupt a streak of 11 straight defeatssealing yet another match in which the Lakers, in fact, didn’t trail even once. A piece of data shared by TNT during the live television broadcast of game 4 caught the attention in particular: in the four matches of the series the Lakers led in scoring for a total of 136 minutes and 31 seconds, more than triple that of the Nuggets who instead drove for 41 minutes and 53 seconds. Even adding the 14 minutes and 7 seconds in which the score remained tied, the Lakers took the lead more than half the seriesa sign that they still have the chance to “hold the field” against the reigning champions.
The progress of the matches in the series
Obviously, however, Staying ahead doesn’t mean winning, nor is it a guarantee of victory. In game 1 the Lakers were ahead until midway through the third quarter even reaching +12 in the first half, but they were overwhelmed in the final 18 minutes without any discussion; in race 2, they took control of the match practically immediately, flying up to +20, but they were reassembled and finally overtaken by Jamal Murray’s buzzer beater; and also in race-3 they controlled the first half until +12, only to then be dominated in the second half by the reigning champions. And in race-4as mentioned, James and co have always stayed aheadresisting the comeback attempt of the guests who returned to a maximum of -7 after being 19 down. However, the peculiarity of a series in which the team one step away from elimination remained ahead for most of the timebut this data also shows how the Nuggets have control of operations, knowing exactly when to accelerate to bring home success.
