Nuggets guard Ty Lawson flexed his muscles in Game 6 against the Lakers and had a career game. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Ty Lawson set the tone for Game 6. He made his first four shots and never stopped getting buckets.
The Denver point guard said he got some advice from his shooting coach, and it worked. He made 13 of his 18 shots from the field, including 5-for-6 from 3-point range, to lead the underdog Nuggets to a convincing 113-96 victory in Denver to tie the Lakers-Nuggets series at 3 games apiece.
“We were up until 12 o’clock last night putting shots up. The basket looked big, and it went in for me,” said Lawson, who had been on a mini-shooting slump with just 11 and nine points the last two games (9-for-25) after brilliant games in games 1 and 2.
Nuggets coach George Karl said one small adjustment allowed Lawson to get his confidence back.
“We showed on film on how he was shooting the ball more flat than up. After making his first couple of shots he has that confidence,” Karl said of Lawson, who finished with a game-high 32 points.
Karl said the blowout victory in Game 6 belonged to the players, especially his young point guard from North Carolina. “Ty and I would always joked about our [North] Carolina careers, on how we always play big in big games. This was a big game, the biggest game probably he’s ever played in. And Saturday will be even bigger.”
The Saturday game Karl was referring to is Game 7 in Los Angeles after the Nuggets forced a seventh game after being down 3-1 in the first-round series.
“We knew we could beat them as long as we follow our game plan,” Lawson said. “Game 7. L.A. Let’s go.”