Lakers took Nuggets’ best shot and hit theirs, Helene Elliott writes.

Sorry, Nuggets, these aren’t Clippers. Their canceled comeback is sign they’re in trouble.

Denver Nuggets coach Michael Malone stared at the box score he clutched in his right hand, studying the tangible confirmation of how the Lakers had ripped out a piece of his team’s heart.

The Nuggets, who had erased 3-1 series deficits against the Utah Jazz and the Clippers in the first two rounds of the NBA playoffs, were adding to their reputation for resilience Sunday as they tried to pull even with the Lakers two games into the Western Conference finals. They were down by eight with 3 minutes 3 seconds left in the fourth quarter, but a spree of 12 straight points from Nikola Jokic put them in the lead with 2.1 seconds remaining, carrying them to the verge of something big.

They weren’t facing the Clippers, who hadn’t been able to handle the multiple dimensions of Jokic’s game and wilted under duress. Denver was seconds from subduing the Lakers, the No. 1 seed in the West, a team that welcomes pressure and thrives on it. “We were this close from getting the win,” forward Michael Porter Jr. said, holding his fingers a hair’s breadth apart.

That tiny opening was enough for the Lakers to bust through, taking advantage of a miscommunication among Denver’s defenders to earn a 105-103 victory on Anthony Davis’ buzzerbeating three-point shot. And while losing by a small margin on the game’s final possession can be considered progress for the Nuggets after they were blown out in the opener, coming close was no consolation to Malone.

“No, no silver linings. This is the Western Conference finals,” he said during a videoconference Sunday, the loss still fresh in his mind. “So, no moral victories, no silver linings.”

That philosophy will prevail again when the series resumes Tuesday. No NBA team has overcome a 3-0 deficit in a best-of-seven series, and as resourceful and plucky as the Nuggets have been, they can’t put themselves in that deep a hole against the Lakers and expect to climb out.

“We’re 0-2 in the series right now, so we’ve got to find a way to muster up some strength and come back in Game 3 and play even better than we played tonight. Just make the necessary adjustments,” Porter said. “We played better [Sunday] than we played in Game 1. Just take another step forward. We’re a resilient team, and we’re not going to let this get us.”

Neither team was scheduled to practice Monday, but they knew what they had to focus on for Game 3. Not surprisingly, both pointed to improvements on defense as key to success.

The Nuggets trailed by 10 at halftime but put the squeeze on the Lakers in the second half, holding them to 22 points in the third quarter and 23 in the fourth. It was one small positive Malone found Sunday after his team allowed the Lakers to score 126 points in Game 1.

“We did a much better job of taking away their transition. That was a huge point of emphasis going in, so to clean that up allowed us to be in the game,” Malone said. “Our defense will keep us in games. We’re 8-8 in the postseason, and in our eight wins our defense has been great. And we gave ourselves a chance tonight, but unfortunately Anthony Davis hits an incredible shot to kind of take that win away from us. But the defensive transition was tremendous. If we can continue that, we’ll continue to give ourselves a chance.”

A small chance might be all they’ll have, given the effectiveness of Davis (31 points) and LeBron James (26) in Game 2.

“They have two really good, really good, really good players. They have LeBron, who is probably the best player in the league, and they have AD, who is probably the best scorer in the league. It’s not easy to figure them out,” Jokic said.

“They’re really talented. We can just make it tough and make them feel uncomfortable maybe, but they’re really talented and they’re going to find solutions. We need to stay on top and make them uncomfortable.”

Lakers coach Frank Vogel called the Nuggets “a complete basketball team” and “a nightmare to guard.” He added: “Leads mean nothing. You’ve got to play 48 minutes, and luckily we were able to prevail down the stretch.” They were good, more than lucky, with Davis making a clutch shot in a make-or-miss moment in a make-or-miss league.

For the Lakers to avoid repeating that kind of lastminute drama, they’ll have to clean up their turnovers — they committed 24 in Game 2 that Denver turned into 19 points — and they must establish and maintain a good flow throughout Game 3.

“Every time we have to stop the game for free throws or take the ball out of bounds because they scored, it hurts our offense,” Lakers guard Alex Caruso said. “It’s about, firstly, playing defense and getting out, but even on makes, just playing with pace. And making sure late in games we’re spaced the right way so we can get good shots.”

The Lakers have the depth and playoff experience the Nuggets’ previous playoff opponents lacked. They also have two bigs, JaVale McGee and Dwight Howard, who are capable of battling Jokic every second he’s on the floor. They’re motivated and smart and adaptable. The Nuggets know that all too well, but Jokic said they’re not conceding anything.

“We are here underdogs. Is that how you say it, underdogs?” the Serbianborn center said. “We need to fight. That’s our only chance. They were up 15, isn’t it, or 16? I don’t know how much they were up. We could just call it a game and quit, but I think we just want to give the fight. Maybe it was going to be 30 points, but fight needs to be there, and effort.”

They had the fight. They had the effort. But they didn’t get the silver lining or the victory, and that’s all that matters.

Elliott reported from Los Angeles.