Nicola Joaquin had the feeling that Anthony Davis’ buzzer-hitting 3-pointer was going to fall on his outstretched arm and he was getting his hands on his knees a lot while celebrating the Los Angeles Lakers Sunday.
He did all he could to steal Game 2 at the center of the Denver Nuggets, scoring 11 points from 30 minutes in the final 2 minutes and 42 seconds. The problem was that the ball was not in Jockey’s hands at the end of the game. Davis did and he drilled 3 to win over the jockeys to make the Lakers thrill to a thrilling 105-103 win at Lake Buena Vista in Florida.
“Either he or LeBron will be [James to take the last shot], So we know that kind of thing, ”Joakim said of the final play, which saw Nuggets’ Mason Plumley on Davis just to see Plumley and his fellow forward Jeremy Grant at the end of James, freeing Davis.
“Just happened, a little bit of malpractice. I think I had a really good contest, to be honest. I think I was there. He hit the ball and he shot really well. Like, I had a kind of experience. Done. He’s going inside. Great players shit. “
The resilient Nuggets have made history in this NBA postseason, reaching a 3-1 loss to the series twice in a row, shocking Utah in the first round and then the LA Clippers in the second round. But this will be the group’s first attempt to bounce back from a 2-0 loss in the Best of F-Seven series in the last two postseason.
“I mean, we’re here [as] Underdogs, “Jockey said.” You say so, Underdogs? I mean, we need to fight. That is our only chance. They were 15 years old, weren’t they? I don’t know how many of them were all. We can just call it a game and leave. I think we just want to give a fight. Maybe it could be 30 points, but the fight needs to be there, and should be tried. “
Nuggets trailed 70-54 in the third quarter with 8:12 left. And they were eight down with 3:03 remaining in the game. But Joaquim eventually managed to get loose against the Lakers’ defense. He got some favorable switches on smaller defenders and was able to pay the Lakers to send double-teams, with five of his nine assists coming in the third quarter.
But like all this postseason in Nuggets, Joaquin set up his game when things seemed vague for Denver. With less than three minutes left, he hit a 19-foot feedway, threw two free throws and buried a 3-pointer. Then, after Jamal Murray missed a short 3-point attempt, Joaquim gave the Nuggets a 1-point lead.
Davis responded with a 13-foot floater. After the deadline, Jockey backed Davis and hooked up an all-defensive first-timer with 20.8 seconds left to give Denver a 103-102 lead.
But on the final play, Jock challenged left-wing Davis to an inbound pass while tracking the ball. Just to see the Nuggets sinking in Game 2, OK tried his best to fight the kick.
“Losing,” Denver coach Michael Malone said after the loss. “It’s a bottom-up defeat, sucks. Some men like to win, some people hate to lose. I think we’re a group of guys who hate to lose, even if it’s by 20-points in Game 1. Shake or tonight on the buzzer, the same counts.
“The only thing you can talk about tonight is that we were in the game. To beat us on the buzzer they had to rely on a shot by a great player. But as long as we put ourselves in a position to win games, that’s all you can ask. I know one thing about our group, even though we’re frustrated, frustrated, angry, we’ll try to get that motivation out and take Game 3. “
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