Skip to main content

Nuggets' Jamal Murray Amazes NBA Fans with Game-Winner to Beat LeBron James, Lakers


Garrett Ellwood/NBAE via Getty Images

Jamal Murray: Champion. Cold-blooded. Game 2 hero.

After struggling with his shot throughout Monday's Game 2 of the Denver Nuggets' first-round playoff series against the Los Angeles Lakers, the guard put his team on his back and scored six points in the final minute. The last two came on a fadeaway jumper as the buzzer sounded, giving Denver the 101-99 victory.

The reigning champions are now up 2-0 on the series and maintained their dominance over the Lakers by overcoming a 20-point deficit for the win.

It was an incredible ending with LeBron James stealing the ball and elevating for a dunk to put the Lakers ahead by three in the final two minutes. From there, Michael Porter Jr. tied it with a triple, D'Angelo Russell gave Los Angeles the lead with a layup, Murray hit two free throws to tie it, and then he and James exchanged baskets.

James had a wide-open three-pointer on the Lakers' final possession but missed it. That set the stage for Murray's game-winner, which drew plenty of reaction from social media:

Murray finished with 20 points and five assists on 9-of-24 shooting from the field, while Nikola Jokić dazzled with 27 points, 20 rebounds, 10 assists and two steals. Porter also impressed with 22 points and nine boards behind 6-of-10 shooting from deep.

As for the Lakers, Monday's loss surely feels like an obstacle they may not be able to overcome.

While Denver swept Los Angeles in the 2023 Western Conference Finals and won all three regular-season matchups in 2023-24, it seemed like the Lakers were finally going to put that all behind them on Monday.

After all, they jumped out to a 15-point halftime lead while Anthony Davis (32 points and 11 rebounds) played at an unstoppable level. Russell also caught fire from deep on his way to 23 points and seven three-pointers, while James was in full control as the primary facilitator and de-facto point guard.

The King (26 points, 12 assists and eight rebounds) dictated tempo in pick-and-rolls with Davis and then sensed when he needed to assert himself as a scorer with back-to-back three-pointers and an and-1 down the stretch after the Nuggets climbed all the way back from their 20-point deficit.

On another night, James' steal and monster dunk over Murray may have been the exclamation mark from another vintage performance by the all-time great.

Instead, Murray had other ideas.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

NBA Rumors: LeBron James' Son Bronny Is on Draft Boards of 'Multiple Teams'

Chris Coduto/Getty Images Bronny James' USC team has struggled this season, but that reportedly hasn't stopped the NBA interest in the son of legend LeBron James. "When I talk to people around the league, he's on the draft boards of multiple teams," Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium reported Thursday: Charania noted teams around the league believe he is "further along" on the defensive side of the ball than the offensive side, which makes performances like Wednesday's all the more important. The USC freshman finished with 11 points, six assists and five rebounds while shooting 5-of-11 from the field in one of his best offensive showings of the season in a loss to Arizona. The only game that he scored more points in was a Dec. 30 loss to Oregon State when he finished with 15 on 6-of-11 shooting from the field. Perhaps most importantly, James played a season-high 30 minutes against the Wildcats on Wedn...
Post a Comment
Read more

What Happened to the Rivalry Between LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony? - Bleacher Report

They were two young stars with unique and special abilities on the basketball court. They had recently played in a high-attention scholastic contest against each other. They were both selected in the same draft. The LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony rivalry was supposed to be the best individual rivalry since Magic and Bird. But while the relationship between Bird and Johnson is dramatized in a new Broadway play , Anthony and James will meet for the 15th time in their careers and do so without much fanfare. James and Anthony first met in a USA developmental camp in 2001 . Much like how Johnson raved about Bird after they played together on a college All-Star team playing in an international tournament, James couldn’t stop talking about Anthony. The two squared off in a high school showcase game the following year that pitted the player regarded as the best senior in the country (Anthony) against the one that was the best junior in the country (James), a game Anthony’s team wo...
Post a Comment
Read more

‘So You Think You Can Dance’ 18 episode 3 recap: In ‘Auditions: Day Three,’ one hopeful was like ‘the LeBron James of dance’

"So You Think You Can Dance" season 18 ended the first stage of the competition on Monday night, March 18, with the last dance hopefuls looking for a spot in the choreography round. So far the bar has been set pretty high by standout performances from dancers representing a variety of dance styles, shapes, sizes and ability levels. So who stood out among the last crop of contestants? Did the show save the best for last? "We've put 25 people through," said judge Allison Holker at the start of the show. She singled out contemporary dancer Braylon Browner and gymnast Dakayla Wilson as standouts from the first two days of auditions. Comfort Fedoke agreed that Wilson is capable of anything a professional choreographer could throw at her. Maksim Chmerkovskiy was especially impressed by contemporary dancer Easton Magliarditi . But "there's so many other things outside of dance that we're also looking at." More from GoldDerby SEE ...
Post a Comment
Read more