On the verge of being swept, LeBron James has a message for the Lakers
May 20, 2023, 10:34 PM
Photo by Harry How/Getty Images
LOS ANGELES—LeBron James has only twice been swept in his storied NBA career and both instances occurred in the NBA Finals.
James has never been swept, he’s only once lost in the conference finals of his 12 trips. The league’s leading scorer, who has done the unthinkable time and time again in his career is now trying the impossible. No NBA team has overcome a 3-0 deficit and the 38-year-old James and the rest of the Los Angeles Lakers have that task. The King needs to pull it off, in order to keep the Denver Nuggets from their first-ever trip to the NBA Finals.
The message James shared?
“We just gotta get one, one game at a time,” he said after the 119-108 Nuggets Game 3 win to push them ahead 3-0. “We can only focus on Game 4, get ready for Monday. We just gotta get one and it’s a one-game series for us.”
Only three teams in NBA history have come back from down 3-0 to even force a Game 7, 91 of the 110 series where a team was up 3-0 ended in Game 4. Denver has never swept a team, heck they’ve never even beaten the Lakers in the playoffs, failing seven times in the past.
“We still are (locked in), we’ll be upset and disappointed tomorrow when we watch the film,” James said. “It should still be there (the belief the season isn’t over,) I hope so. I still have that belief. My mindset is always locked in.”
“Of course, the only mindset (is making history,)” James said.
So it’s either Nuggets history or more LeBron history, those are the only two options as Miami and Boston await the west coast.
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