Denver Nuggets

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Will Barton continues to rehab his knee injury and is unlikely to return for the Western Conference Finals for the Denver Nuggets against the Los Angeles Lakers. Barton has not played during the restart. Barton averaged 15.1 points, 6.3 rebounds and 3.7 assists in 33.0 minutes per game this season. Denver has largely started Jerami Grant in place of Barton.

Nikola Jokic said that the Denver Nuggets miscommunicated on defense on Anthony Davis' game-winning three during their 105-103 game 2 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers. Mason Plumlee started the final possession guarding Davis, with Jerami Grant guarding LeBron James. Plumlee and Grant both ended up on James, giving Davis space to receive and shoot the ball. "Either going to be him or LeBron [James to take the last shot], so we kind of knew it. Just happened, a little bit of miscommunication. I think I had a really good contest, to be honest. I think I was right there. As soon as he shot the ball, he shot it really well. Like, I kind of felt it going in," said Jokic of Davis' shot. The Nuggets are now down 2-0 in the series. Jokic and Michael Malone said that the Nuggets needs to continue fighting in the series, though Malone found a positive in that the Lakers needed a last second shot to win the game. "The only thing you can talk about tonight is we were in the game. They had to rely on a great shot by a great player to beat us at the buzzer. But as long as we're putting ourselves in position to win games, that's all you can ask for. One thing I know about our group, even though we are disappointed, frustrated, angry, we'll use that motivation to come out and try to take Game 3."

Jamal Murray said that the Denver Nuggets have to expect that foul calls will go against them following their game 1 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers. "Just try to play through it. It's tough. They want to talk about every call and have full conversations and try to manipulate what happens, but you can't worry about it. "We know how it's going to be. We know we're the younger team. We're just going to play through it. We're going to find a way, and we're not going to go away so easy," said Murray, who finished with 21 points and 5 assists. The Nuggets were called for 16 fouls in the second quarter, leading to 24 Lakers free throws. The Lakers went to the line 37 times in the game, nine more than the Nuggets. Michael Malone said he'll watch the film to "see the fouls that are being called, why they're being called, should they have been called." Murray added that the Nuggets have to earn the respect of the refs. "I'm not going to sit here and just blame it on the refs. That's not what I'm doing. We just got to play through it and earn the respect."

Game 7 of the Western Conference semifinals between the Denver Nuggets and Los Angeles Lakers averaged 5.23 million viewers on ESPN, making it the largest audience of the playoffs on cable and the second-largest across all networks. It was the third-largest live sports audience on cable since the NFL Draft in April behind only Monday's two NFL games on ESPN. Game 7 trailed only last year's Warriors-Rockets Game 6 (7.33M) as ESPN's most-watched early round playoff game in the past four years.