The Lakers punted. The Nuggets muffed it but recovered at the last second.
Down 11 in the first half and showing no signs of defensive life, Denver eventually pulled itself together, kind of, for an unconvincing 131-126 win over a depleted Lakers squad that was missing its two stars Friday at Ball Arena.
The Nuggets (43-24) were trailing by three in the last minute. Then Nikola Jokic bullied his way to a game-tying 3-point play, and Jamal Murray knocked down a go-ahead pull-up three with 5.6 seconds left. Jokic’s ball screen took Lakers defenders Dalton Knecht and Christian Koloko with him after Knecht fried to switch and front him on the pick-and-roll. Instead, the former Denver-area high school star was used to wall off his teammate. Nuggets coach Michael Malone calls it “driving the red.”
Murray was wide open.
“Jamal told me there’s a guy behind me, so OK, I’m just gonna push my guy and basically create a double- or triple-screen,” Jokic said. “It was a good play for us.”
“Not only were they switching, but Jamal couldn’t make the pass because Christian Braun’s man on the wing, Jordan Goodwin, was sitting in Nikola’s lap,” coach Michael Malone said. “So he literally had three guys on him.”
Russell Westbrook intercepted the Lakers’ side-out pass and raced for an exclamation point dunk, capping an 8-0 run in the final 50 seconds.
When Malone entered his postgame news conference, he immediately crumpled a print-out of the box score, discarding the paper in the nearest receptacle.
Asked if he intends to throw the entire game in the trash, he said, “You have to.”
LeBron James was no longer on the road with his team due to a groin strain that might also cause him to sit out Wednesday’s rematch. Luka Doncic was ruled out for injury management after scoring 45 in the first half of a back-to-back Thursday in Milwaukee. Even Rui Hachimura and Dorian Finney-Smith, two critical role players in JJ Redick’s defensive scheme the last time these teams met, were sidelined with injuries.
But a mixture of Los Angeles and South Bay Lakers outworked their hosts for most of the night, led by a flaming Austin Reaves. He dropped 37 points, eight rebounds, 13 assists and four steals. Knecht helped out with 32 points as a starter. Shake Milton scored 16 off the bench.
Los Angeles fielded 19 offensive rebounds to Denver’s nine. The Nuggets allowed 20 second-chance points and lost the paint 62-58.
“This isn’t a beauty pageant,” Malone said. “We don’t get rated on our wins. It’s a win.”
Perimeter defense was equally lackluster. Before the game, Malone identified the Nuggets’ 3-point prevention as the one area of their defense he would most like to improve before the playoffs. They’re allowing seven more outside attempts per game than last season. The Lakers got up 40 and made 15 of them, including consecutive momentum-swingers from Reaves and Markieff Morris to go ahead 111-105 with six minutes left.
The Nuggets took back a 121-116 lead with a 14-3 run, but Los Angeles was not to be denied. Reaves blew by Christian Braun for a one-point lead with 1:04 to go, and Murray threw an errant entry pass at the other end to give up another easy runout.
But three of the last seven meetings between the Nuggets and Lakers have now ended with Murray game-winners, dating back to the 2024 playoffs. He finished with 26 points, 18 of them in a 7-for-9 second half.
“The call was two-man game,” Murray said of the last play. “And we just figured it out. We figured it out up top. We kind of went to it the last 4 minutes, 30 seconds.”
Jokic got to the line 17 times en route to 28 points, seven boards and five assists. He had Morris matched up against him in the post for portions of the night, bringing back memories of their shoving match at the end of a Nuggets-Heat game in 2021 that resulted in a serious injury for Morris.
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