(Basketball news) The Denver Nuggets beat the Los Angeles Lakers in game 2 as they beat them 108-103 to take a 2-0 series lead. For the Nuggets, Murray scored 23 of his 37 points in the fourth quarter as Jokic added 23 points, 17 rebounds and a dozen assists for his 13th playoff triple double.
For the Lakers, James and Reaves both scored 22 points while Anthony Davis scored 18 after pouring in 40 in the opener and Rui Hachimra scored 21 points off the bench. The Nuggets have never been this close to reaching the NBA Finals in their franchise history. While Game 3 is on Saturday night at Crypto.com Arena, where James and the Lakers are 8-0 in the playoffs.
If the Nuggets manage to win at least one game away from home they will be in the driving seat to qualify for their first NBA final.The outstanding defense Hachimura played on Jokic in the fourth quarter in the Game 1 led many fans to believe that coach Darvin Ham would start Hachimura to try to neutralize the Nuggets’ star center from the start. But instead he came off the bench again and impressed everyone by scoring 17 first-half points but just scored four in the second half.
“He was special,” Jokic said. “He won us the game basically.”
“He made shots at the end of the clock,” LeBron James lamented. “We guard for 24 seconds and he made two big-time shots, one over (Anthony Davis) and one over me. He had his 3-point shot going in the fourth. It’s no surprise to me, he’s done it before. Sometimes it’s a never-miss league.”
“It would have been a lot easier if I had made them in the first half,” said Murray, who is still playing through an earache he hasn’t been able to shake since Round 2.
“For those that don’t know him, he’s got 13 playoff triple-doubles now,” Malone sneered after Game 2. “It’s just incredible what he continues to do on a nightly basis on the biggest stage in the world.”
“You win Game 1 and all everybody talked about was the Lakers,” Malone said. “Let’s be honest, the national narrative was, ‘Hey, the Lakers are fine. They’re down 1-0, but they figured something out.’ No one talked about how Nikola just had an historic performance. He’s got 13 (playoff) triple-doubles now, third all-time. What he’s doing is just incredible
“But their narrative wasn’t about the Nuggets. The narrative wasn’t about Nikola. The narrative was about the Lakers and their adjustments. So you know, you put that in your pipe and you smoke it, you come back and you know what, we’re gonna go up 2-0.”
“We all know … he just has to see one go in,” Malone said, and when that happened, “he kind of looked up to the heavens and that’s all he needs. And after that he’s shooting into a hula hoop.”
Also read: NBA: Jimmy Butler sinks the Boston Celtics in game 1 to take the series lead
