Ticked, 19.5 (Sport1)
The Los Angeles Lakers finished the regular season in seventh place, but eliminated Memphis in the first round, then cruised past the Golden State Warriors and will now try to turn the tide against the Denver Nuggets, who took a 0-2 lead in the Western Conference Finals tonight.
Like Denver, the Los Angeles Lakers so far have a perfect record in their home games in the playoffs and can't afford to stumble in one of the next two games they host. To win, of course, they'll need LeBron James, who looked exhausted and a little injured tonight in the fourth quarter following an ankle injury. When asked at the end if fans should be concerned about his absence on the night between Saturday and Sunday in Game 3, "A blow to my ankle won't stop me. We're still in the picture."
Not expected to miss the third game of the series. James (Photo: Reuters)
James hit a record 19 consecutive threes in the fourth quarter without a shot since Game 37 against Memphis in the first round, but Austin Reaves defended him when he said at the end: "He can throw as much as he wants, that's LeBron James. We want him to feel comfortable and throw, he's a winner who wins games."
With all due respect to LeBron James and Nikola Jokic who again recorded a triple-double, the big star was Jamal Murray who delivered an iconic performance that included 23 points, including 24 in the fourth quarter in which he swept his teammates to victory. LeBron also knew how to take his hat off: "He just scored, and he made big shots. We guarded for <> seconds on offense and he scored twice at the end of the clock, one on Davis and one on me. I wasn't surprised because he's done it before, there are games like that you can't miss, but it would have been a lot easier for us if he had done it in the first half."
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'After a historic performance, they talked about the Lakers' (Photo: Reuters)
Jokic was also praised, settling for 23 points along with 17 rebounds and 12 assists. Coach Mike Malone said: "For those who don't know, he's already had 13 triple-doubles in the playoffs and it's amazing what he does on a regular basis, on the biggest stage in the world. It doesn't surprise me."
Malone also quipped: "We won the first game of the series and everyone was still talking about the Los Angeles Lakers. Let's be honest, the whole country was in this narrative of, 'Hey, the Lakers are 1-0 behind, but they got something.' No one talked about Nicolas making history with a huge performance, they didn't talk about Denver. Everyone was talking about the Lakers and the adjustments they would make. Now we have a 0-2 advantage."
- sport
- NBA
Tags
- Denver Nuggets
- Jamal Murray
- LeBron James
- Los Angeles Lakers
- Nikola Jokic
