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LOS ANGELES — Closeout games in the playoffs tend to bring out the best in fashion-conscious NBA stars, who might wear black from head to toe to suggest they are attending their opponents’ funeral or don golden sneakers as a regal nod to the league’s championship trophy.

The Denver Nuggets had <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2024/04/26/lakers-nuggets-nba-playoffs/" target=_blank>a chance to sweep the Los Angeles Lakers</a> out of the first round Saturday, but they showed up underdressed: Because of an equipment miscue, multiple players went through their pregame shooting routines wearing socks and open-toed sandals. Their casual attire heralded a casual performance that culminated in a 119-108 loss to the Lakers, which forced Game 5 in Denver on Monday.

“For some strange reason, all of our players didn’t have their shoes when they got here for their normal warmups,” Nuggets Coach Michael Malone said. “We had guys out there shooting around with flip-flops. Is that ideal? No. But I’m not an excuse guy. I’m not going to point to the reason we got our butts kicked in the paint because shoes weren’t here. ... Hopefully, we can make sure that never happens again.”

The sneaker issue should be easily correctable for the defending champions, who lost to the Lakers for the first time in 12 meetings. However, the rare defeat revealed several nagging issues that could become full-blown problems as Denver continues its title pursuit.

When NBA teams are on the road, players are typically shuttled from their hotel to the arena on two buses; their gear is included on the first bus so early-arriving players can begin their warmups in the hours before tip-off. Both teams have access to the court during warmups, so players stagger their shooting routines to avoid overcrowding, with only two or three teammates shooting at the same time. Seniority and star power tend to dictate the order: Less-experienced players are usually forced to take the less convenient earlier slots, though some starters prefer to go earlier than others. Adhering to the routine is crucial; some players, motivated by habit or superstition, will warm up for every game at the exact same time, down to the minute.

Before Game 4, the Nuggets’ footwear didn’t make it on the first bus, leaving at least three rotation players — Michael Porter Jr., Peyton Watson and Reggie Jackson — to make an unfortunate choice: shoot in sandals or skip warmups entirely.

“We definitely don’t want to come off like we’re taking anybody lightly,” said Porter, who got his shots up in sandals. “We just didn’t have our shoes. ... I kind of knew then that people would probably make a big deal out of it, but it was just because somebody forgot to put the shoes on the right bus. I’m frustrated about it. Our pregame routine is very important, but everyone makes mistakes. Everybody’s human.”

Once all their sneakers were in the building and appropriately laced up, the Nuggets still appeared unprepared for the task of knocking out the Lakers. LeBron James opened the scoring with a layup, and Los Angeles built an early double-digit lead for the fourth straight game en route to a whopping 72 points in the paint. Malone said his team’s interior defense was a “joke,” adding the Nuggets lacked “the requisite physicality or urgency” to complete the sweep.

Anthony Davis posted 25 points, 23 rebounds and six assists, helping the Lakers outrebound the Nuggets for the first time in the series. James added a team-high 30 points, and D’Angelo Russell bounced back from a poor Game 3 with 21 points. Unlike in the three previous meetings, Denver was unable to mount a second-half comeback.

“We came in pretty nonchalant, like [the Lakers] were going to roll over and give us the game,” said Porter, who finished with 27 points and 11 rebounds. “We can never do that. We have to get off to better starts. It takes a lot of energy to come back from these double-digit leads. We’ve done it every game this series. We didn’t come out with the right aggressiveness and energy.”

The Nuggets saw three other troubling trends continue: They got less than Jamal Murray’s best, struggled to shoot from outside and received virtually no scoring contributions from their bench.

Murray, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2024/04/23/nuggets-lakers-comeback-game-two/" target=_blank>the hero of Game 2 thanks to his buzzer-beating jumper over Davis</a>, is off to a choppy start in the playoffs. After averaging 26.1 points while shooting 39.6 percent from deep during last year’s title run, the 27-year-old guard is down to 21.5 points and 20.8 percent three-point shooting through four games against the Lakers. Though he finished with 22 points and five assists Saturday, he shot 9 for 23 and missed all four of his three-point attempts, which contributed to the Nuggets’ inability to build late-game momentum.

Denver’s poor outside shooting is a strange development: After ranking 10th by shooting 37.4 percent from outside in the regular season, the Nuggets rank 15th of the 16 playoff teams in three-point shooting at 27.6 percent. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, a reliable 40.6 percent three-point marksman during the regular season, even launched a wayward shot late in Game 4 that caromed off the side of the backboard.

“This is four games we’re not making shots with some wide-open looks,” said Nuggets star Nikola Jokic, who posted 33 points, 14 rebounds and 14 assists. “We’re creating them. We need to still believe in our shots. Hopefully we’ll make some.”

While Denver can reasonably expect its shooting to improve, its anemic bench scoring is a different matter. Malone has leaned heavily on his starters throughout the series, leaving few opportunities for backups Watson, Jackson, Christian Braun, DeAndre Jordan and Justin Holiday. Watson has made some high-level defensive plays, but Denver is averaging just 11.5 bench points and its reserves are shooting just 30 percent. The Nuggets’ reserves combined for five points on 1-for-9 shooting in Game 4, their worst output of the series.

Despite those concerns, Denver returns to Ball Arena comforted by the knowledge that no NBA team has ever climbed out of a 3-0 hole to win a playoff series. The Nuggets were in this exact situation during last year’s first round: They went up 3-0 on the Minnesota Timberwolves, dropped Game 4 on the road and closed the series with a Game 5 home win. All told, Denver was 10-1 at home and 4-1 in closeout games during its 2023 title run. If the Nuggets refocus, address some of their shortcomings and play to their standard, they could get a rematch with the Timberwolves, who enter Sunday’s Game 4 with a 3-0 series lead over the Phoenix Suns.

“We can’t continue to play like this,” Malone warned. “[The Lakers] are not rolling over. They’re not going to give us the first-round victory. We’re going to have to earn it and take it.”

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Ben Golliver joined The Washington Post as the National NBA Writer in 2018. An Oregon native, he lives and works in Los Angeles.

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