Jamal Murray’s big 4th quarter propels Nuggets past Lakers 108-103

DENVER (AP) —
Jamal Murray scored 23 of his 37 factors within the fourth quarter,
propelling the Denver Nuggets to a 108-103 come-from-behind win
over the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday night time for a 2-0 lead within the
Western Convention finals.

Nikola Jokic
had his thirteenth playoff triple-double with 23 factors, 17 rebounds and
a dozen assists for the Nuggets, who’ve by no means been this near
reaching the NBA Finals of their historical past.

Sport 3 is
Saturday night time at Crypto.com Enviornment, the place LeBron James and the
Lakers are 8-0 within the playoffs.

Murray missed
12 of his 17 photographs by means of three quarters however discovered his contact in
the fourth, going 6 for 7, together with 4 3-pointers and fueling a
15-1 run that gave Denver a 96-84 lead.

Similar to in
Sport 1, the Lakers didn’t go down simply. They pulled to 3
factors on Austin Reaves’ jumper earlier than Murray sank two free throws
with 12 seconds left and Bruce Brown stole the ball from James,
then dribbled out the ultimate 8 seconds.

The Nuggets
improved to 41-8 at dwelling, finest within the NBA, together with 8-0 within the
playoffs.

James and
Reaves each scored 22 for Los Angeles. Anthony Davis scored 18
after pouring in 40 within the opener and Rui Hachimra scored 21 factors
off the bench.

For a lot of
the night time, it appeared as if the Lakers would wrest home-court
benefit from the Nuggets, who’re the highest seed for the primary time
of their historical past. The Lakers received the collection openers at Memphis and
Golden State to succeed in the convention championship.

The
excellent protection Hachimura performed on Jokic within the fourth quarter
of the Lakers’ loss in Sport 1 led many to imagine coach Darvin Ham
would begin Hachimura to attempt to stymie the Nuggets’ star middle
from the beginning. However as a substitute he got here off the bench once more.