LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Lakers trail the Oklahoma City Thunder 3–0 in their Western Conference semifinal after a lopsided Game 3 defeat on Saturday, yet LeBron James insists the defending champions are not out of options.
“I’m not angry or disappointed,” the forward said following the May 9 loss at Crypto.com Arena. “Obviously, you’re disappointed with the simple fact that you’re down 3–0, but we still got life. That’s all you can ask for. We have to be much better on Monday.”
No NBA team has ever erased a 3–0 deficit in a best-of-seven series. The Lakers now face elimination in Game 4, scheduled for Monday on their home floor.
Third-quarter struggles continue
Los Angeles stayed competitive through the first halves of all three games and even led at the break in Games 2 and 3. The trouble has come after halftime: the Thunder have outscored the Lakers by 31 points in third quarters, including a 33-20 margin on Saturday.
Head coach JJ Redick adjusted his rotation for Game 3, but James said the energy still lagged coming out of intermission. “They put a thirty-plus-point quarter on us,” he noted. “We did a good job of sharing the ball and knocking down shots in the first half. But in that third quarter we didn’t knock down shots, we didn’t get stops, and it allowed them to take control.”
James held to 19 points
The 41-year-old finished with 19 points but struggled to convert in the paint and never seized command of the game. Entering Saturday, teams leading 2–0 in a seven-game series had advanced 92 percent of the time. James has been part of three of the 34 comebacks from 0–2 and is now 3–7 in series where he has trailed by two games.
“Everything and more” will be required to extend the series, he said. “We gotta be at our best on Monday.”
Source: LakersNation.com
