Kept the home: Denver took a 0-2 lead over the Los Angeles Lakers - voila! sport

Fixed: Sports Day Events Summary Clip, May 18 (Sports5)

The Denver Nuggets rose to a two-point lead in the Western Conference Finals series over the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday night thanks to a dramatic 103-108 home run and are two wins away from the first NBA Finals in their history.

Now the series shifts to two games at the Los Angeles Lakers, who will have to figure out how to stop Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic, as well as reassure their players ahead of Game 3 on Saturday-Sunday night — especially LeBron James, who looked tired in the final quarter and broke a negative record.

Jamal Murray, Denver actor (Photo: Reuters)

The Los Angeles Lakers threw no fewer than 30 threes throughout tonight's game, but was accurate on only eight of them. As for James, "King" missed 19 consecutive threes he made in the fourth quarter since the second-round game this season against Memphis, the longest streak in the postseason in 25 years. Murray scored 23 points in the decisive fourth quarter and it was the fourth time he scored more than 20 points in the final quarter of a playoff series, the most in 25 years. Murray wasn't the only one to star, as Jokic also did his part to say the least by reaching a fourth consecutive triple-double and the first to do so in NBA playoff history.

Murray recorded a total of 37 points, 10 rebounds, five assists and four steals, and Jokic scored 23 points, grabbed 17 rebounds and dished out 12 assists, and together they powered Denver back from an 11-point deficit to maintain its perfect home record in the playoffs (0-8).

After a first half that ended with a slight five-point lead for the Lakers (48:53) and at the end of the third quarter when the scoreboard showed a slight three-point lead for the visitors, it was Murray and Jokic who completed the turnover with 9:20 left in the final minutes and never looked back. Jokic, by the way, reached a triple-double of 13 in the playoffs and moved up to third place in history behind LeBron James (28) and Magic Johnson (30).

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Negative record from outside the arc. James (Photo: Reuters)

Davis actually sniped from outside the arc to cut the lead to 99-94 with 3:42 to go, and a basket by Murray from half distance didn't stop the Lakers, who cut the margin to just two points heading into the final minute thanks to another three-pointer by Reeves, but Murray penetrated the basket, squeezed a foul from Schroeder and from the line, took advantage of James' errors from Davis to go to the penalty line once more and closed the story. Michael Porter Jr. also led Denver with 16 points.

And back to LeBron. In addition to his negative streak from beyond the arc, he also made history tonight when he delivered his 2,000th assist in the league in the fourth quarter. However, he scored 22 points in 40 minutes on the floor (9-of-19 from the field, 0-of-6 from beyond the arc), dished out 10 assists and grabbed nine rebounds, but even in the final minutes he couldn't reset the handle. Austin Reaves also scored 22 for the Lakers and Anthony Davis added 18 to go along with 14 rebounds.

• sport
• NBA

Tags

• Denver Nuggets
• Los Angeles Lakers