Nikola Jokic leads Nuggets past Lakers 132-126 in West opener

DENVER (AP)— Nikola Jokic recorded his sixth triple-double of these playoffswith 34 points, 21 rebounds and 14 assists, powering the DenverNuggets to a 132-126 win over the Los Angeles Lakers in the openerof the Western Conference finals on Tuesday night.

BehindJokic’s sizzling start and strong finish, and Jamal Murray’s 31points, Denver beat the Lakers in the opener of the West finals forthe first time ever.

After aslow start, Anthony Davis had 40 points and 10 rebounds, and LeBronJames finished with 26 points, 12 boards and nine assists. AustinReaves chipped in 23 points and fueled L.A.’s desperatefourth-quarter run that nearly erased Denver’s 14-point cushionafter three.

The Nuggetsled by as many as 21 but the Lakers pulled within three pointstwice in the fourth quarter, once on Reaves’ 3-pointer at 124-121and again on James’ pair of free throws that made it 129-126 with1:12 remaining.

After Jokicsank two free throws with 26 seconds left to give Denver a 131-126lead, Murray poked the ball from James as he was about to take itto the hoop and Jokic gathered the loose ball before being fouledwith 10.9 seconds left. He sank one of two and James misfired from3 as the seconds ticked off.

Game 2 isThursday night at Ball Arena, where the top-seeded Nuggets are 7-0in the playoffs and 41-7 overall, the best home record in theleague this season.

Jokic saida day earlier that the Nuggets desperately needed to avoidfollowing in the sneaker-steps of the Memphis Grizzlies and GoldenState Warriors, both of whom dropped their home opener to theLakers and wound up losing in six games.

Moreover,James has won his last 20 playoff series in which his team has wonthe opener.

The Nuggetshadn’t taken Game 1 against the Lakers since 1979, when they wonthe opener of the best-of-3 series only to lose the next two.That’s the closest the Nuggets have ever come to eliminating theLakers, who have beaten Denver three times in the West finals,including in the Florida bubble in 2020.

Flashinghis MVP credentials in a stunning display of power in the firstquarter, Jokic pulled down a dozen boards and dished out fiveassists to go with eight points. That made him the first playersince at least 1997 to have a dozen or more boards and at leastfive assists in any quarter of an NBA playoff game.

The Lakersused an 11-2 run to cut the deficit to 11 points before Jokicresponded with an off-balance 3-pointer over the outstretched armof Davis that barely fluttered the net at the buzzer, leaving Davisto trudge back to the bench in disbelief.

The“Joker,” who missed out on his third consecutive NBA MVP award thisyear when he was edged by Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid, had 19points, 16 rebounds, seven assists and two blocks by halftime asthe Nuggets took a 72-54 lead into the locker room.

PLENTY OFPOINTS

With 258combined points, it was the highest-scoring conference finals gamethat didn’t go to overtime since 1987, when Detroit beat Boston145-119.

CLOCKSHOT

Amalfunctioning shot clock was fixed and restored to its rightfulplace above the baskets in time for the second half. A malfunctionforced officials to place a timer on both ends of the Ball Arenafloor in the first half. It made for a different sort of gaze forJames, Jokic and the rest of the players, who usually glanceslightly up from where they’re shooting to know how much time isleft. In the first half, they had to look toward the right side ofthe baseline.

TIP-INS

Lakers:L.A.‘s only lead came on James’ bucket to open the game. ... TheLakers lost to the Nuggets in the playoffs for just the ninth timein 34 tries. ... Los Angeles coach Darvin Ham lost a latechallenge, the second one of the fourth quarter that took aninordinate amount of time for the officials to rule on.

Nuggets:Denver grabbed 20 of the first 23 rebounds in the game. ... Theonly player since 1997 to do what Jokic did in the first quarterwas Cleveland’s Anderson Varejao, who blitzed the Wizards for 12rebounds and five assists in a regular-season game in October of2012. ... The Nuggets called timeout just before the 10-minute markin the fourth quarter and actually lost a point when it wasdetermined a 3-pointer by Murray was actually a 2, cutting Denver’slead to 108-100.