Photo: Matthew Stockman/Getty Images
The powerful offense of the Nuggets of Denver exploded in the fourth quarter with a fiery Jamal Murray, who finished with 37 points, en route to defeating the Los Angeles Lakers 108-103 and lead 2-0 in the Western Conference finals.
The best-of-seven series will resume Saturday in Los Angeles. Denver is halfway to its first NBA Finals.
The game was played with very inconsistent refereeing that annoyed both teams: in certain periods of the game the officials were picky about calling fouls and in others they were very permissive. There were some markings that affected the Lakers, but their coach Darvin Ham never dared to use his “challenge” to request a review.
LeBron James, who started his 280th game of the conference finals and suffered an apparent sprained ankle in the final minutes, he had a strong performance: he recorded 22 points, 9 rebounds, 10 assists and 4 steals. In addition, he took the assignment in the second half of defending the giant Nikola Jokic, doing it with relative success.
LeBron James drought in three-point shots
However, James struggled with his long-range shot, missing all six of his attempts (1-for-20 in the fourth quarter in these Playoffs). That, combined with a bad night from Anthony Davis (4-15), allowed the Nuggets to dominate the fourth quarter with a flurry of 3-pointers. Back-to-back baskets by Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. made it 96-84 to send the Lakers to the canvas with 5:32 to play.
James told reporters that his ankle is fine and explained that Denver’s 3-pointers in the fourth quarter were the difference.
“We improved from Game 1 to Game 2, and we can improve from Game 2 to Game 3,” he said.
There were five consecutive triples for the home team for the somersault that would be irreversible. LA had been leading most of the time.
The Lakers didn’t give up, but just like the series opener, they came up short as Davis missed two 3-point attempts and a completely exhausted James fumbled a final ball. The Nuggets sealed the win by making their free throws in the final minute.
LA only made 8 of 30 3-pointers, against 14 of 38 for the Nuggets. Jokic had another triple-doublethis time with 23 points, 17 rebounds and 12 assists.
Both teams had good runs in the third period, first Los Angeles and later Denver, which managed to tighten the score to 79-76 in favor of the Lakers before the final period.
Lakers had a better start to the game
Unlike the first game of the series, the Lakers started keeping Jokic under control (9 points, 2 rebounds and 2 assists). The Serb would eventually get into the groove for another huge performance. The umpires over-conditioned questionable fouls, angering virtually every player on the court. They went to the second period with a score of 27-27.
The addition of Rui Hachimura helped Los Angeles take the lead in the second quarter after the fourth-season Japanese made his first seven field goals (17 points). He finished with 21 units. But the Lakers then cooled off by missing 10 straight field goals and allowed Denver to pull within 53-48 at halftime.
In a revealing fact, both teams had the same number of rebounds (23) after the first 24 minutes of the game, a key category to define Game 1. At the end of the game, Denver had 49 to Los Angeles.
The Lakers are in a hole, but back home, where they haven’t lost in these playoffs, they will try to get into the fray.
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