The Denver Nuggets came dangerously close to blowing a 20-point fourth-quarter lead to the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals on Tuesday, but they hung on for a 114-106 victory.
This came on the heels of Game 2, when the Nuggets overcame a 16-point deficit in the second half and led by a point with 20.8 seconds remaining, only to see Anthony Davis drill a game-winning three at the buzzer.
Indeed, the Nuggets, who have twice overcome 3-1 series deficits, have seen no shortage of drama this postseason.
“They’ve kind of been this way the entire playoff run,” Denver Nuggets play-by-play voice Jason Kosmicki said on After Hours with Amy Lawrence. “They had a 1-0 lead on the Utah Jazz in the first round, but other than that, they’ve only led a series in Game 7. They’ve been playing catch up not only game-by-game and score-wise, but in the series as well. If you ever have a better reason to cash in – like, ‘Hey, man, let’s get the hell out of the bubble, I haven’t seen my wife and/or girlfriend for days’ – they’ve had a million of those excuses in their back pocket, and they haven’t taken them yet. It was good. We all want a fun series. We’ll see what we got moving forward here.”
Jamal Murray was a force in Game 3, finishing with a team-high 28 points and game-high 12 assists. Jerami Grant and Nikola Jokic, meanwhile, had 26 and 22 points, respectively. Together, they overcame a 30-point, 11-assist, 10-rebound triple-double from LeBron James, not to mention 27 points from Anthony Davis.
The Nuggets are still down 2-1 in the series, but after what happened in the first round against the Jazz – and in the second round against the Clippers – it’s safe to say they’re unfazed.
“This gets overlooked in professional sports all the time,” Kosmicki said. “Forget the NBA, I’m just talking in sports: I think they believe. And belief is a damn rare thing these days, especially in professional sports, and I actually think they believe they can win the title. Everybody else, people can guarantee all this stuff and break out brooms and whatever they want to do, but when you believe in yourselves and each other, that’s a pretty powerful thing. I think that’s where they drive from. They just believe they can win it.”
Game 4 is Thursday at 9 p.m. ET.