This is it — the Los Angeles Lakers’ season has come down to Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals on Monday. Any thought that they could compete in this series after the first two games versus the Denver Nuggets has all but vanished after Game 3.
Even after Jamal Murray finally went cold and Nikola Jokic got into foul trouble in the second half of Game 3, the Lakers were only able to take three brief, scant fourth-quarter leads before surrendering a 13-0 run and a 3-0 series deficit.
They will not want to get swept in front of their home fans, and they will want to maintain some of their dignity if they indeed have no shot at coming back to take this series.
Los Angeles, at a minimum, will need to do these three things in order to finally get a win.