The Denver Nuggets beat the Los Angeles Lakers 114-106 in Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals on Tuesday, making the series score 2-1 instead of trailing 3-0.

Jamal Murray was the shiniest star on the court for the Nuggets as he dropped team-high 28 points, eight rebounds, and 12 assists. He first led the team's bench unit to launch a 15-2 run in three minutes at the beginning of the second quarter, placing the Lakers on a double-digit trail.

Murray's highlights were not over. When the Lakers finally slimmed their trail down to four points with a 19-2 run at the end of the last quarter, Murray stood out to save the day. He drilled two valuable triples and assisted Paul Millsap to finish a dunk in the following three minutes, putting the Nuggets back onto a 12-point lead.

So far, Murray already buried eight clutch-time 3-pointers in the playoffs this season. The only one who could beat him in that in the past 20 years was Stephen Curry in 2016, according to ESPN Stats & Information research.

"Now I know every night what I'm getting from Jamal, Last year, we knew what we were getting from Nikola, but what kind of game would Jamal have. That's no longer the case. We have two superstars in Nikola and Jamal," said Michael Malone, head coach of the Nuggets.

"We had Game 2. We played great in Game 2. We just had a couple (of) breakdowns that really hurt us. We feel like we should be up 2-1 right now, to be honest. But we're going to move on to Game 4," said Murray.

Despite Murray's incredible performance, this was still a team for the Nuggets. Jokic had 22 points, 10 rebounds and five assists. Monte Morris and Jerami Grant together went 4-9 from the 3-point line. Grant contributed 26 points and 12 happened in the third quarter alone. His performances in defense and fast break in Tuesday's game were very impressive.

As for the Lakers, they only had themselves to blame for the loss. Going 6-26 from downtown was not really surprising for the purple and gold but grabbing only 25 rebounds was. Usually, you expected a team with Anthony Davis, JaVale McGee, Dwight Howard and LeBron James to do a lot of better in rebounding. Instead, the three big guys only got four rebounds, and Davis somehow did not have any in the first three quarters. By the way, the Nuggets got 44 rebounds, beating the purple and gold in both total number and offensive ones (9-4).

Moreover, coach Frank Vogel really had some explaining to do over why he sent that "suicide squad" at the beginning of the second quarter. The Lakers only trailed by two points after Q1, but after James, Rajon Rondo, Alex Caruso, Kyle Kuzma, and Markieff Morris played for three minutes, they already trailed 44-29. This lineup had no rim protection or spacing. They committed three turnovers and allowed two offensive rebounds in less than three minutes. The purple and gold spent the rest 32 minutes of the game trying to catch up, but they failed.

One of the few highlights of the Lakers on Tuesday was the 19-2 run they launched in seven minutes of Q4. The Nuggets suddenly forgot how to launch offense around Jokic, and their ball movement was held up. Meanwhile, Rondo and Caruso delivered four turnovers, which helped the Lakers catch up fast via fast break waves. When James made another layup to slim their trail down to three points (101-98), the Lakers came so close, achieving another comeback victory.

Then came the chaotic three minutes that saw the two sides only got three points together. The Lakers missed all four of their attempts, none free throw, and had a turnover. The Nuggets did not do much better, but they sustained until Murray came to do cast his magic.

Game 4 of the series will take place on Thursday, and the Lakers need to decide whether they want to watch the West Finals go to 2-2 or they want to put the Nuggets on their "favorite" 3-1 trail?