Murray puts Lakers on the canvas

What a game the Denver Nuggets and Los Angeles Lakers played in the second chapter of the West Finals, in which after a dominant last quarter by Jamal Murray, the locals went 2-0 in the series by winning 108-103.

It seemed that the yellow and purple team would even the tie with the adjustments made by coach Darvin Ham; however, these were not enough to withstand a physical Denver team that in the final stretch also moved its pieces and found in the Canadian point guard the piece it needed to maintain the undefeated at home.

These are some of the keys to the Nuggets’ victory.

1.- Murray’s 23 points in the fourth quarter

Of the 37 points scored by Murray, 23 of them came in the last period, with which the Nuggets took a 32-24 lead after a 20-5 start with which they were able to culminate the comeback they had been flirting with in the third quarter. But the point guard’s contribution was not only offensive, of the 10 boards he recovered, eight were defensive, which in combination with the 13 (defensive) of Nikola Jokic, who achieved a triple-double, ended the good work that the Lakers had done in the first half to manhandle the ‘Joker’.

2.- Certainty of Michael Poeter Jr.

The forward went off for 17 points, but his contribution from beyond the arc kept his team in the fight in the first three quarters just as the Lakers were trying to separate themselves on the scoreboard.

Porter was 4-7 from beyond the arc, being one of the main ‘beneficiaries’ of the ‘double-teaming’ that Coach Ham sent Jokic with Anthony Davis and Jarred Vanderbilt starting, and coming off the bench with Rui Hachimura, an adjustment that worked for the first half until the Nuggets’ shooting was fine-tuned.

3.-The Lakers again struggled from beyond the arc.

One of the improvements the Lakers had shown so far in the playoffs was three-point shooting; however, in Game 2, the Angelenos again struggled in this area and once the Nuggets closed the paint, they were forced to shoot outside, but with a poor 8-30 for 26.7% on three-pointers, the built lead was falling short as Denver started to get sharp to finish with a 14-38 (36.8%) on three-point shots.

Thus, the Lakers saw the 4-0 streak they boasted after losing the first game of the playoffs cut short and will have to play at Crypto.com Arena with the pressure of not making mistakes that would further compromise their pass to the NBA Finals 2023.

Game 3 will take place on Saturday (20:30 ET) at the home of the yellow and purple.