All the pressure is off the Nuggets in Game 3 as they head into Los Angeles looking to take complete control of their series against the Lakers. Denver has now won 10 straight meetings vs LeBron and co. following Jamal Murray’s heroic buzzer beating winner on Monday. Nikola Jokic posted another monster stat line with 27 points, 20 rebounds and 10 assists, making key plays for the Nuggets who were down by as many as 20 points in that game. Coming back from double-digit deficits in back-to-back games shows a lot of character, but I’m sure the Nuggets wouldn’t prefer having to do so in Game 3 as well. They’ve covered in 4 of the last 5 visits to crypto.com Arena, plus in their last 12 road games in the regular season they’re 9-3 SU.
Losing Game 2 in the fashion in which they did must have felt like a gut punch for the Lakers who were so close to finally beating this team. I do think LA has a chance here, they’re actually 1.5 point favorites according to the oddsmakers which is something we haven’t seen often in games against the defending champions. One thing that’ll need to improve if the Lakers want to win here is their bench production. So far through 2 games the Lakers reserves have scored 17 points total, with all 17 coming from one player Taurean Prince. For a team that has set pretty high goals for themselves in this postseason that’s simply not going to cut it. D’Angelo Russell will also have to maintain his level of shooting from Game 2, he exploded for 7 threes on 11 attempts.
