LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — The Lakers had come so close to doing this the easy way, taking those first two games of the Western Conference Finals and pulling within three in the final, frenetic minutes of their Game 3 loss to these never-say-die Denver Nuggets.
But this — Jamal Murray making it so abundantly clear that he’s feeling comfortable again — is the last thing they want to see.
That familiar vibe was there in that spectacular closing stretch in the fourth quarter, when he danced with Alex Caruso before hitting that 3 from the left wing to push Denver’s lead, which had once been as large as 20 points, to seven. It was there when he found Paul Millsap all alone at the rim for a dunk after using the force to move Rajon Rondo aside with a slick fake to Nikola Jokic on the perimeter to push it to nine. And it was certainly there when he buried that vengeful 3 from the deeeep left wing over Game 2 hero Anthony Davis with 53 seconds left…
