Being down 0-3 and facing elimination gets players emotionally riled up. Such happened to be the case tonight with LeBron James. Wearing his heart on his sleeves, James couldn’t prevent himself from being animated as he was heard cussing at one point in the Game 4 contest against the Denver Nuggets. Darvin Ham not challenging a call, despite James’ repeated requests, got the latter frustrated.
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In one of the plays during the fourth quarter, LeBron James urged his coach to challenge a call that was believed to have been out of bounds. As heard in a leaked audio, James swore that he didn’t touch the ball. Hence, he urged Darvin Ham to use the coach’s challenge and get the call overturned. During his request, the four-time MVP was also heard cursing.
“I did not touch the ball. I did not touch it. Challenge it. Challenge the f**king play,” James exclaimed.
James was right about the call potentially being overturned in the Lakers’ favor. But unfortunately, Ham didn’t issue the challenge. Instead, while LeBron was seemingly annoyed, the Nuggets would go on to inbound the ball and score instantly.
Fortunately, the LA side won tonight’s contest and Darvin Ham did use his challenge before the game concluded – during the dying minutes of the contest, as the Purple & Gold already led by 9 points with 42 seconds remaining.
For the fourth straight game, LeBron James had an impressive outing, lodging 30 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, and 3 steals, per NBA.com. Leading the Lakers to their first win of the series, James helped his side squash an 11-game losing streak (7 in the playoff) against the Denver Nuggets.
Suffering a minor setback, the Colorado side are still the favorites to win the series. However, having won one game at last, the California side will have faith in themselves, approaching the remainder of the series one game at a time.
