Nuggets warm up before Game 4 without shoes after mixup

LOS ANGELES – Throughout the series, Denver Nuggets coach Michael Malone has told his team it needs to get off to a better start. Just because the Nuggets were able to overcome double-digit deficits in the first three games of their first-round playoff series against the Los Angeles Lakers, that didn't mean they could always turn things around in the second half.

On Saturday, the Nuggets got off to another false start. Or rather, a few players took the court without shoes at all before Denver's 119-108 loss to the Lakers in Game 4 of the Western Conference playoffs because of a mix-up in carrying several players' insoles onto the early bus Arena came to the stadium, according to a team spokesman.

“Is it ideal? No,” Malone said. “But hopefully we can figure this out and make sure something like this never happens again.”

“If you want to look a little deeper and say, well, we lost because for some strange reason our players didn't have their shoes with them when they came here for their normal warm-up and because we had guys out there wearing flip -Flops shot around.” Is it ideal? No. But I'm not a day tripper, and I'm not going to point out the reason why we kicked ourselves because there were no shoes.

Malone was much more concerned about the Lakers' continued dominance in scoring in the paint – Los Angeles scored 72 points in the paint in Game 4, the most in a playoff game in the last 25 years, according to a study by ESPN Stats & Information. It was the second straight game in which the Lakers scored more than a league-leading 70 points, and a stark contrast from the first two games of the series, when they averaged just a league-leading 46 points.

The Lakers did it in a variety of ways, whether by sending Anthony Davis inside – he's averaging 30.5 points on 62% shooting in the series – or by going downhill with drives to the basket.

According to Second Spectrum, Los Angeles has made 58 layups or dunks in the last two games, the most over a two-game span since player tracking began in 2013-14. The Lakers' strategy also served as a defensive challenge for Denver's all-world center Nikola Jokic, who struggled with foul trouble in both games in Los Angeles.

The biggest difference Saturday night, however, was that the Nuggets ultimately couldn't come back after the Lakers built a double-digit lead in the first half.

Denver had destroyed the Lakers' spirit in three straight games by repeatedly picking up victories in the second half. Game 4 appeared to follow a similar script as Los Angeles jumped out to a 13-point halftime lead.

Denver got within seven points in the fourth quarter, but this time LA had an answer.

“We talked about getting off to a better start,” said Denver swingman Michael Porter Jr. “It takes a lot of energy to come back from those double-digit deficits of 20 or 15, whatever. Tonight they did a good job of maintaining the lead. Whenever we got within 10 or 8, it seemed like they made a 3-pointer or a big shot.

Porter was one of the players whose insoles and shoes didn't make it to the arena in time for his pregame shooting time. He dismissed this as a factor in the team's defeat, but admitted it was not a good way to prepare for a final game.

“I think the bus the shoes were loaded onto was the last bus. There was some confusion,” he said. “So I just had slides. They said we could either skip our warm-up or go out in foils. I kind of knew at the time that people would probably make a big deal about it, but that was just because someone forgot to put the shoes on the right bus.

“It is frustrating. The pre-game routine is very important, but everyone makes mistakes. Everyone is human, so I’m not too angry.”

Porter Jr. hit just four of his 10 shots in the first half, but finished Saturday's game 10 of 20 from the field and scored 27 points.

Game 5 is Monday night in Denver.