Jamal Murray scored 17 of his 37 points in the first quarter, Nikola Jokic added 24 points and eight assists and the Denver Nuggets took a commanding 3-0 lead in the Western Conference finals with a 119-108 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday night at Crypto.com Arena.
“This group is capable of doing great things, and they believe,” said Nuggets coach Mike Malone. “Belief is a very powerful thing.”
The Nuggets 26-year-old point guard started off 5-5 from the field scoring 11 of Denver’s first 15 points to open the game while jumping out to a 24-10 lead.
Murray had 30 points through two quarters and became the 4th player in the last 25 years to have three 30+ point halves in the Playoffs.
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“Just get him open,” said Jokić on how to get Murray in a rhythm. “Just get him the ball and get him open. And I think it’s so cool to see when everybody’s like just get him the ball, screen for him, do something. Just make them make some kind of mistake so he can go to work.”
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope scored 12 of his 17 points in the second half, Michael Porter Jr. had 14 points and 10 rebounds and Bruce Brown added 15 points off the bench for the Nuggets.
“It’s not about one guy,” said Murray. “We have a deep team and everyone’s ready to contribute.”
Denver led 58-55 at halftime as Los Angeles outscored the Nuggets 35-26 in the second period.
Anthony Davis led the Lakers with 28 points and 18 rebounds while LeBron James finished with 23 points, 12 assists and seven rebounds.
“I can’t speak for the guys right now because I don’t know what’s going through all their minds, but I still (believe),” said James on extending the series. “So it’s time to go right back home and start to refuel and start the treatment process and recovery process and get ready for Monday. My mindset is always locked in.”
No team has yet to come back from a 3-0 playoff series deficit in NBA history.
“The deficit is 3-0. Not 4-0,” said Lakers coach Darvin Ham. “As long as they haven’t gotten to four yet, there’s still hope. We’re still alive.”
Austin Reaves continued his impressive play and added 23 points and seven rebounds. Rui Hachimura had 13 points off the bench for Los Angeles.
D’Angelo Russell struggled again for the Lakers, finishing with only three points on 1-of-8 shooting in 20 minutes.
“All good looks. He just has to remain aggressive. All good looks,” Ham said on Russell.
The Lakers trailed by seven with two minutes left in the third quarter but James made back-to-back threes to get within one, 83-82 only before Caldwell-Pope added a free throw to give the Nuggets an 84-82 lead.
Hachimura converted two free throws that briefly gave Los Angeles a 94-93 lead with 7:48 left in the fourth quarter but Denver responded in a big way.
The Nuggets used an emphatic 13-0 run to put the game away after Jeff Green, Brown and Murray all made consecutive three-pointers to retake a 102-94 advantage. Brown and Jokic then capped the run with two layups to push their lead to 106-94 with 4:50 left in the period.
Denver is now one win away from advancing to the NBA Finals for the first time in franchise history.
“You need 16 wins to win a championship and we have five more to go,” said Murray. “We just gotta stay locked in.”
The Lakers will be looking to keep their season alive in Game 4 against the Nuggets in Los Angeles on Monday at 5:30 p.m.
“Our backs have been against the wall (for) probably about the last two months, maybe more than that since the trade deadline,” Reaves said. “Swinging, throwing punches to fight to get to this opportunity. … We can either come out Monday and go home, or we can fight for another day. And with the group of guys that we’ve got, I know what that answer will be.”
