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Sports Seriously, USA TODAY
DENVER — The roles were reversed in Game 2 of the Western Conference finals. After being down by as many as 11 in the second quarter, the Denver Nuggets came back to beat the Los Angeles Lakers 108-103.
The star of Game 2 was Denver guard Jamal Murray, who joined elite company with his fourth quarter performance.
Denver remains undefeated at home in the playoffs and is powered by two-time MVP Nikola Jokic, who had his 13th career playoff triple-double in the game, moving him to third most in the playoffs all-time.
The Lakers, now down 2-0 in the series, will host the Nuggets in Game 3 on Saturday and both teams will make their adjustments, even if one side’s gets talked about more than the other.
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Here are three takeaways from Game 2 of the Western Conference finals:
We haven’t seen the full potential of Jamal Murray, which is scary
Murray was listed as questionable ahead of Game 6 of the second round series against the Phoenix Suns, but he has not missed a game. Nuggets head coach Michael Malone said he still wasn’t 100% ahead of Game 2. Murray showed it as he played lackadaisical in the first half, starting 5-of-17 from the field.
But he woke up in the fourth quarter and had 23 points, finishing as the team’s leading scorer with 37 points. This is his fourth time scoring 20 points or more in the fourth quarter of a playoff game. He joins Michael Jordan and Allen Iverson as the only players in the past 30 years to have multiple games with 20 points in the final period of a playoff game.
“He was special and he won us the game,” Jokic said. “He scored 20-something in the fourth quarter. He got us the lead, his energy, he played 40-something minutes, 42 minutes, so I think he was amazing.”
“The game would have been a lot easier if I made them the first half,” Murray noted of his performance, “so just come out focused and knock them down, don’t lose any confidence or anything like that. Just play my game and you know that they’re going to fall if I keep shooting.”
The 26-year-old is no stranger to adversity as he experienced the NBA bubble with the team and this is his first year back after missing all of last season with a torn ACL. Malone was snarky all day, making comments about his daughter’s lengthy graduation and bemoaning the lack of credit his team is getting, but he turned heartfelt when speaking on Murray’s development.
“It’s so rewarding. This is not just coach and player,” he said. “… I love Jamal Murray. This is not just like I’m coaching him. We’ve been together for seven years and been through a lot of ups and downs and to see him back playing at the level he’s playing at, the first thought for me is just tremendous pride and just so happy for him.”
Rui Hachimura’s Game 1 performance was not a fluke
Rui Hachimura was widely credited with slowing down Jokic in Game 1 and he came off the bench to power the Lakers’ offense in Game 2. He finished with 21 points and there was a stretch between the first and second quarters where he had 11 of the Lakers’ 13 points. He also scored the last bucket of the first half, an alley-oop dunk from LeBron James that put the Lakers up 53-48 at the half.
James finished with 22 points, tied with Austin Reaves for the team lead, and played stronger in the second half. He didn’t score until a dunk with 6:49 left in the first quarter and massively whiffed a breakaway windmill dunk that had Ball Arena reveling in his embarrassment. He was visibly gassed as the final buzzer sounded.
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As James ages and works through his injuries, young stars like Hachimura have stepped up to keep Los Angeles’ hopes of an 18th title alive.
“I’m just trying to be aggressive on both ends, especially (against) their big,” Hachimura said. “So I think for this series, the coaches have been telling me it’s going to be a big series for me. So I was ready for this.”
The Nuggets do not care that the ‘national narrative’ is about the Lakers
After the near-comeback in Game 1, the national media talk was about how the Lakers would adjust to try and even the series.
For the Nuggets, this is nothing new. In the 2020 bubble, the conversation was around the Utah Jazz and the Los Angeles Clippers as Denver outlasted both in seven-game series where it completed 3-1 comebacks.
Michael Porter Jr., who had 16 points and a key shot that tied the game in the fourth quarter, explained the team mentality.
“We got a lot of dudes who aren’t really big into the social media thing, feeding into that,” he said, “which I think that plays to our advantage, being the type of small-market team that we are. So I don’t think we mind that at all.”
Murray and Jokic echoed the sentiment.
“The outside noise is outside noise,” Murray said. “We’re the Denver Nuggets, we’re used to it. Even when we win, they talk about the other team. We beat the Clippers in the bubble, they talk about the other team. Same old, same old, it just fuels us a little more and will be sweeter when we win the ‘ship.”
“Since we made playoffs, it’s like that, so it’s nothing new for us,” Jokic said. “To be honest, I like it. We don’t care. Whatever.”
Malone had the strongest statement of all.
“You put that in your pipe, you smoke it,” he said, “and you come back and you know what, we’re gonna go up 2-0.”
