There was a bit of cruelty late Monday night in Denver, the Lakers’ and the Nuggets’ late-game fates summed up by a pair of shots with wildly different degrees of difficulty.
First, with the score tied, LeBron James stood all alone at the three-point line. Whether or not Kentavious Caldwell-Pope got pushed or got his feet tangled up was irrelevant. He was on the court, legs in the air, left to watch.
James, who had just wrapped his best three-point shooting season of his career, had already drilled two in the fourth quarter, and neither look was as good as this one.
And he missed.
“It rimmed in,” he said, “And it rimmed out.”
After the miss (and the Michael Porter Jr. rebound), Jamal Murray ripped the Lakers’ hearts out by hitting a fading jumper over Anthony Davis right in front of the Nuggets bench. Davis switched onto Murray after a Nikola Jokic screen, the Lakers counting on their best defender to stay with a big-time clutch player.
The moment, captured in videos and photos that will haunt the Lakers, was electric.
“When they came down, they wanted to get their two best players into action, which they did,” Lakers coach Darvin Ham said. “And, you know, Jamal Murray hit a tough shot. AD, fading away baseline, to his right. AD, outstretched arm, great contest.
“Kid hit a tough shot.”
And put the Lakers in a tough spot.
