LeBron James surges late to lead Lakers past Nuggets

LeBron James sat on a basketball court littered with purple and gold confetti, stretching and taking a breath.

He thought about practical concerns at first. The team he’d just beat — the plucky Denver Nuggets who weren’t even supposed to get this far. The teammates he’d helped experience something they’d never seen before — particularly Anthony Davis. The next opponent, whether it be Boston or Miami.

Then, as the paper fragments fell onto his shoulders, he thought about his journey and looked around at this strange bubble where his mission was unfolding.

He signed with the Lakers to help a once-proud organization regain its shine, and in the fourth quarter of their first closeout game in the Western Conference finals, he made clear again and again and again that he was going to make good on his word.

“This is what I came here for,” James said. “I heard all the conversations and everything that was said about why did I decide to come to L.A — the reason I came to L.A., it was not about basketball. All those conversations, just naysayers and things of that nature. I understood that, with the season I had last year and my injury, it just gave them more sticks and more wood to throw in the fire to continue to say the things that they would say about me.

“But it never stopped my journey and never stopped my mindset and never stopped my goal.”

With a 117-107 win in Game 5 of the Western Conference finals in Orlando, Fla., on Saturday night, the Lakers eliminated the Nuggets to advance to the NBA Finals for the first time in 10 years after six consecutive years of not even making the playoffs.