DENVER — Once upon a time LeBron James was the playoff Swiss army knife, putting cold water on your best player while controlling it on the other end.
We saw it against Derrick Rose well over a decade ago, and now Rose’s polar opposite was standing in front of James for long stretches, sapping whatever energy James had left as he tried to engineer an upset.
James nor the rest of the Lakers could shut off the charging Denver Nuggets in Game 2 of the Western Conference finals, with Jamal Murray taking center stage in the fourth quarter on the way to a 108-103 win at Ball Arena.