Nikola Jokic moved LeBron James out of the way as they battled for a rebound, grabbed the ball, got fouled and scored off the putback.
And all James could do was turn his palms skyward, as if to ask “what else can I do?”
That sequence in the third quarter of Game 3 of the first-round NBA playoff series between Jokic’s Denver Nuggets and James’ Los Angeles Lakers basically sums up the series. James has done his part. The Nuggets have just been better.
There’s a quadrupleheader of playoff games in the NBA on Saturday — Cleveland at Orlando, Oklahoma City at New Orleans, Boston at Miami and then the first possible elimination game of this opening round when Denver takes a 3-0 series lead into L.A. to try and sweep the Lakers for a second straight season.
“It’s one game at a time at this point, and you lose, you go home,” James said. “You come out with the mindset, let’s get one, force a Game 5 and then we’ll go from there. So, as long as you still have life, then you always have belief.”
A mass parachute jump over Normandy kicks off commemorations for the 80th anniversary of D
Cruise ship industry poised for new golden era
Xiong'an eyes hub of innovation, startups
Xinjiang leads growth in express deliveries
China announces discovery of major oilfield in Bohai Sea
Traditional Double Sixth Festival celebrated in SW China's Guizhou
A mass parachute jump over Normandy kicks off commemorations for the 80th anniversary of D
Simplified payments to facilitate foreign visitors