The Lakers tried just about everything. They really did.

They made two changes in their starting lineup. LeBron James played a full 48 minutes. It was anything and everything to possibly extend their playoff series Monday against the Denver Nuggets.

It wasn’t meant to be.

Denver swept the Lakers in the Western Conference finals with a 113-111 victory in Game 4 at Crypto.com Arena.

It was an abrupt end to a Lakers season that was rescued at the trade deadline but came up four long wins short of another NBA Finals appearance.

The Lakers didn’t necessarily lose the series; the Nuggets won it and deserved it.

James, 38, didn’t go down without a fight. He scored 40 points, becoming the oldest player to ever hit that mark in a playoff game. He also added 10 rebounds and nine assists.

“He came out with a mindset to keep this thing going…to get it done by any means necessary,” Lakers coach Darvin Ham said.

In a surreal first half, it looked like James might succeed.

He scored 21 in the first quarter and upped it to 31 by halftime. He played the entire half except the last 4.3 seconds as the Lakers took a 73-58 edge. It was his only break for the entire game.

James wasn’t dour after the series ended. Of course, he wasn’t upbeat either as his 20th season came to an end.

“I wasn’t able to come through and get the win,” he said Monday.

As for the series, which featured three close games where Denver pulled away in the fourth quarter, James said, “Just couldn’t make plays down the stretch. That’s the frustrating part.”

The Jamal Murray-Nikola Jokic duo was a big reason the Lakers couldn’t close out these games.

Murray scored 25 points in Game 4, which actually brought down his series average to 32.5 points.

Jokic was the catalyst in the third quarter Monday as Denver outscored the Lakers, 36-16, to take a 94-89 lead. He finished with 30 points, 14 rebounds and 13 assists.

Denver offers just about everything. Just ask James.

“They have scoring, they have shooting, they have play-making, they have smarts, they have length, they have depth,” he said.

The Lakers started out 2-10 and, despite making a flurry of trades before the February deadline, were still 11th in the Western Conference with three weeks left in the regular season.

They felt the wind at their backs, though, cruising up the standings to seventh place and then winning the play-in tournament game against Minnesota to officially qualify for playoffs.

From there, they upset an irritating, way-too-confident Memphis team in the first round and dethroned defending champion Golden State in the West semifinals.

Denver, however, was too much to ask.

Nuggets power forward Aaron Gordon hadn’t done much this series but that changed with his 22-point effort in Game 4, including three three-pointers.

Denver will appear in its first NBA Finals against the winner of Boston and Miami, a series the Heat currently lead, 3-0. The Nuggets officially moved from the old ABA to the NBA in 1976.

The Lakers tried to use the element of surprise to change up their luck in Game 4.

Struggling point guard D’Angelo Russell was relegated to reserve status in place of feisty defender Dennis Schröder.

Rui Hachimura was also inserted into the starting lineup in place of offensively challenged Jarred Vanderbilt, giving the Lakers an extra boost of scoring acumen and shooting touch.

Hachimura, however, made only three of 12 shots while Schröder missed six of eight shots in the second half on the way to 13 points.

Russell had moments to remember in the first two playoff series, including a 31-point outburst to eliminate Memphis in Game 6 of the first round. But he averaged only 6.3 points against Denver and shot 13.3% from three-point range.

The Lakers have a bevy of free agents on their roster. Davis, who scored 21 points Monday, and James are under contract next season but there are unanswered questions beyond that.

Hachmiura and Austin Reaves are restricted free agents, while Russell is an unrestricted free agent. Vanderbilt, Malik Beasley and Mo Bamba all have non-guaranteed contracts or team options that must be decided by the Lakers by the end of June.

“We don’t know what our group is going to look like,” Davis acknowledged. “We don’t know what team we’ll have next year.”

James, for obvious reasons, deserved the final words after the game ended.

“We had a great run but we fell short of our goal,” he said. “And our goal is to win championships.”