DENVER — The collapse ended with a punch to the face, a blow to the ears, a dagger through the heart.

The collapse of a million Laker mistakes ended with one Denver Nuggets masterpiece, the ugliness of pretenders trumped by the beauty of champions.

Jamal Murray hit a fadeaway jumper at the buzzer, Ball Arena shook with an avalanche of glee, Anthony Davis fell backward into the Denver bench in desperation, and it was over.

This game. This nightmare. This series?

On a night they held a dominant 20-point lead in the third quarter against a dormant Nuggets team that finally appeared on the verge of vulnerability, it was the Lakers who folded, the Lakers who wilted, the Lakers who disappeared.

Again. Again. Again.

Of their 10 consecutive losses to the Nuggets, this was surely the worst, a 101-99 defeat pried out of the jaws of victory in Monday's Game 2 of the first round of the NBA playoffs.

First round, probably last round for the Lakers, who trail two games to none and now must win four of five games against the defending champions to survive.

All while thinking … they had them, they solved them, they were going to finally beat them.

Then it all went up in the smoke created by a team that, unlike the Lakers, fires harder when the stakes get hotter.

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