Denver holds off L.A., trails 21 in the series
Jamal Murray had 28 points, 12 assists and two late 3pointers to halt a Lakers charge, helping the Denver Nuggets to a 114106 victory Tuesday night in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., that cut Los Angeles’ lead to 21 in the Western Conference finals.
The Nuggets lost almost all of a 20point lead in the fourth quarter but still prevailed avoiding a 30 hole that would have been daunting even for this neveroutofit team.
Denver has set a record by erasing two 31 deficits in this postseason, but no NBA team has ever come back from 30.
Jerami Grant added a playoff areerhigh 26 points and Nikola Jokic had 22 points and 10 rebounds for the Nuggets, who will try to even the series in Game 4 on Thursday.
LeBron James had 30 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds for the Lakers, who remain two wins from their first NBA Finals appearance in a decade. Anthony Davis, who made the winning 3pointer at the buzzer in Game 2, scored 27 points.
Next season: Commissioner Adam Silver doesn’t expect next season to begin until 2021.
Silver told CNN’s Bob Costas on Tuesday that his “best guess” is the coming NBA season will start in January at the earliest.
The NBA and NBPA will decide on a new start date for the season. The start of the NBA season usually begins in October, but it had been rescheduled for Dec. 1 because of the NBA shutdown before being pushed back again because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The league wants to play a standard season, which would include an 82game regular season and full postseason. The goal is play games in home arenas in front of fans.
“There’s still a lot that we need to learn in terms of rapid testing, for example,” Silver said. “Would that be a means of getting fans into our buildings? Will there be other protections?”
Around 40% of the league’s onceprojected $8 billion in revenue comes from having fans in attendance.
Donovan to Chicago: The Bulls hired Billy Donovan as their head coach.
The 55yearold spent the past five seasons with the Oklahoma City Thunder. He replaces Jim Boylen, who was fired after the Bulls finished 2243 and were one of the eight teams that didn’t qualify for the NBA’s restart at Walt Disney World.