LeBron James did a marvelous job on both ends of the floor in the Los Angeles Lakers' 114-108 Game 4 triumph over the Denver Nuggets on Thursday. Apart from scoring and making plays for his teammates, The King also took it upon himself to guard the Nuggets' best scorer, Jamal Murray, in the crucial stages of the final quarter.
Speaking shortly after the win that gave his team a commanding 3-1 advantage in the West Finals, James addressed how challenging it was to try and slow down the red-hot Murray.
“Hell of a player. One of the hottest guys that we have in the bubble today out of the four teams remaining. I just wanted to try to take the challenge. He’s a tough guard, very shifty. He’s a triple threat,” James said of Murray in the post-game interview, as relayed by USA Today's Mike Sotto.
At 35 years old, LeBron James showed that he is still capable of holding down one of the most cerebral scorers in the league. Jamal Murray has been on a rampage inside the bubble and has shown he shines the brightest when the game is on the line. The 23-year-old Canadian has been deadly in the fourth quarter and overtime in the playoffs, and Thursday's game against the Lakers was no exemption.
The Lakers superstar also went into more detail about taking on the bubble's most consistent closer during his postgame interview.
“I knew it was winning time and Jamal had it going. … I told my teammates that I had him."
—LeBron on shutting down Jamal Murray in crunch time pic.twitter.com/hWJOwAOgjn
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) September 25, 2020
Murray once again led Denver with 32 markers on 12-of-20 shooting from the field, along with eight assists, three boards, and one block in 45 minutes in Game 4. His tough buckets early in the final canto kept the Nuggets within striking distance of the Lakers.
LeBron James, however, knew stopping Murray would be key for preventing a Nuggets comeback against the Lakers. James used his size advantage against Murray to deny him the ball. He prevented the shifty guard from getting to his spots. With Murray a marked man, the Nuggets didn't have their usual closer in clutch situations.
LeBron finished with a near triple-double of 26 points, nine rebounds, and eight assists in 38 minutes. The Lakers, on the other hand, are just one win away from returning to the NBA Finals.
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