Murray goes cold, ‘tired’ Nuggets blow it, lose to Lakers

DENVER — Jamal Murray capped an awesome first half with a make from beyond halfcourt to cap a 14-3 run, giving the Nuggets a big lead going into the second half. It was the last points the likely All-Star would score until very late in the fourth quarter as Denver went cold and lost 115-107 to the Los Angeles Lakers.

The Nuggets came out on fire with nine makes from deep on 11 tries in the first quarter. Murray kept his heat up through the second quarter, where he flamed for 26 points on 15 shots. But an adjustment from Los Angeles and a realization of their size flipped the score big time, as the Lakers erased a 16-point lead to go up by as much as a dozen themselves.

“Late, I thought we got tired,” David Adelman said. “I thought early in the third, throughout early in the fourth, even I thought the shots were good shots, but they didn’t fall, but the defense, we got tired there.”

Denver was again without Nikola Jokic, Christian Braun, Cameron Johnson, and Jonas Valanciunas. Between running out of gas on Tuesday and their loss to Charlotte on Sunday, the adrenaline is starting to wear out for the shorthanded Nuggets.

“It’s a tough loss. Honestly, we had control of it,” Murray said. “We were up, and when they come back and beat you on your home floor… It’s just one of those ones.”

The Lakers were without the ascending Austin Reeves but still featured LeBron James in one of his last trips to Denver and MVP candidate Luka Doncic, who started the game on fire and finished with a 38-point triple-double.

Murray had matched Doncic early on but scored just two points after the break. It left the Nuggets without much punch, putting a meager 36 points on the board in the second half — the team scored 37 in the first quarter. Jones made all four of his deep shots in that quarter and ended with 16, while Peyton Watson and Aaron Gordon each added 18 points.

But there was little for the Nuggets outside of that, including on the glass, where they were out-rebounded 51-31 on the game. Denver snagged just 14 rebounds after halftime.

“Extremely impressive first half,” Adelman said. “I thought the second half we wore down a little bit, with the size, they just killed us in transition… to only have five turnovers and give up 25 transition points, says a lot.”

The Nuggets forced 12 turnovers by the Lakers but only managed seven points off those possessions.

The Lakers didn’t take their first lead until there were six minutes to go and they never looked back. James had an emphatic dunk at the end of the game, to cap a night with 19 points, as he and Marcus Smart’s 15 points played wingman to Doncic.

The Nuggets are now 7-5 without Joker, a game behind the Spurs for the second-best record in the West. The Lakers are three games back in seventh.

The Nuggets’ long streak of dominance against the Lakers, which spanned two playoff series and a 13-1 stretch, ended with the Doncic trade. The teams have traded wins since, and for the first time since late 2022, Los Angeles has secured consecutive wins against the Nuggets, dating back to late last season.

What’s next for the Nuggets?

They have a three-game road trip over the weekend, starting with a matchup against the Wizards on Thursday. They return home after visiting Milwaukee and Memphis on Tuesday, when they host Detroit, the first game where Jokic could return. There’s a hint they may get Valanciunas back on the floor in the coming days.

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