Coach Michael Malone after Nuggets' Game 4 loss to Lakers: 'There is no panic'

Coach Michael Malone is a numbers guy.

Of course, he knows that his Nuggets lead the Lakers 3-1 and can close out the first-round playoff series Monday night at Ball Arena. But he’s also acutely aware of statistical trends floating like icebergs, threatening Denver’s voyage toward a second straight NBA championship.

Such as:

• The Nuggets have shot 46.0% from the floor, including an ugly 27.6% on 3-pointers. Los Angeles has made 49.9% of its shots (30.4% on 3-pointers).

• The Lakers have led in 136 of the series’ 192 minutes, a 70.8% clip. The Nuggets have only led for 21.8% of the time, with the score tied in the remaining 7.4%.

• In the last two games, the Lakers dominated in the paint, scoring 70 points in a Game 3 loss and 72 in their Game 4 victory on Saturday night. According to ESPN Stats & Information, L.A.’s 72 points in the paint are the most in a playoff game in the past 25 years.

• Denver has trailed at halftime in all four games, getting outscored in the first halves 233-198. The Lakers have held a double-digit lead in all four games.

Denver should get past the Lakers in the first round — no NBA team has ever rallied from a 3-0 deficit to win a seven-game playoff series — but current trends could sink the Nuggets in the second round, where they are likely to face Minnesota.

“It would have been great to close out, 4-0, and sweep the Lakers again,” Malone said Saturday night, referring to Denver’s sweep in last year’s Western Conference Finals. “But that rarely happens. So, obviously, the first message is, we got Game 3, we have a chance to go home and close it out in our building. So we got one on the road, which is really important to close out any series.

“There is no panic. We have a chance to go out and close it, but the challenge within that is that we can’t continue to play like this. The (Lakers) are not rolling over. They are not going to give us the first round. We are going to have to earn it and take it.”

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