Los Angeles: Jamal Murray scored as the NBA champion Denver Nuggets overcame a 20-game deficit to take a 2-0 lead in the Western Conference playoffs with a 101-99 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers on Monday.
The Nuggets have won their 10th straight game against LeBron James and the Lakers, including last season’s Western Conference Finals win against Denver.
Led by Anthony Davis’ 32 points and 11 rebounds, the Lakers dominated most of the night and took a 20-point halftime lead, 59-44, early in the third quarter.
James scored 26 points and dished out 12 assists, but the Nuggets continued to lose and tied at 95-95 on Michael Porter Jr.’s basket with 1:15 remaining.
James put the Lakers up 99-97 with a layup, but Murray tied it again with a step-up jumper with 30 seconds left.
After James missed a three-point attempt, Murray soared over Davis and connected on a jumper with a quarter of a second left.
“I tell my kids when I’m in trouble, I tell them I’m going to look for you,” Murray told TNT. “They all told me to keep filming, keep filming.
“I just hit it in place and it went up and it went through my shot,” he said. “I’m pretty grateful that it was one of those that went down for me.”
It was a similar story in New York, where the Knicks led the Sixers for the first time in the third quarter.
Philadelphia’s NBA Most Valuable Player Joel Embiid was hampered by soreness in his left knee after surgery, but the Sixers appeared to be regaining control after Embiid fed Tyrese McCoy a three-pointer with 1:09 left. Six men to 100-96.
But Jalen Brunson’s three-pointer with 27.4 seconds left pulled the Knicks within two points, and after Josh Hart made a steal, Donte DiVincenzo hit a three-pointer – after missing the first – to put the Knicks up 102-101.
Og Anunoby hit a pair of free throws to seal the Madison Square Garden spectacular.
Five men with less than a minute to play for Philadelphia.
The 76ers were upset that they could not answer Embiid’s call for timeouts in the crucial seconds, which Embiid contributed to the missed call.
“We’re not going to put ourselves in that position,” Embiid said. “Everybody on the team tried to call a time out … but they didn’t give it to us.
“We should have been 2-0,” Embiid told reporters, frustrated.
“We’re going to win this series,” he said. “We are the better team and we will continue to fight.”
Embiid added 34 points and 10 rebounds, but missed a three-pointer in the final game.
In Cleveland, the Cavaliers beat the Orlando Magic 96-86 for their second straight win in the 2nd round.
Donovan Mitchell had 23 points and Jarrett Allen added 16 points and 20 rebounds for the Cavs.
Paolo Banchero led Orlando to 21 points and Franz Wagner had 18 points. The young Wizard hopes to turn things around when the series moves to Orlando.
