Jamal Murray had 28 points, 12 assists and eight rebounds and made two late three-pointers to cut the Lakers' lead in the series to 2-1.

The Nuggets lost almost all of a 20-point lead in the fourth quarter but held on to win, avoiding a 3-0 hole that would have been daunting even for this never-out-of-it team.

Denver have set a record by erasing two 3-1 deficits in this postseason, but no NBA team has ever come back from 3-0.

"Everybody always has us packing our bags and leaving, but we're not ready to go," Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. "For some reason we love this bubble."

Jerami Grant added a playoff career-high 26 points and Nikola Jokic had 22 points and 10 rebounds for the Nuggets, who will try to even the series in Game 4 on Thursday.

"Maybe they can beat us by 20, 30, they can beat us by a last shot, but we just cannot quit," Jokic said. "Effort needs to be there."

LeBron James had 30 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds for the Lakers, who remained two wins from their first NBA Finals appearance in a decade.

Anthony Davis, who made the winning three-pointer at the buzzer in Game 2, scored 27 points.

The Nuggets led by 20 with 10 1/2 minutes left and soon after were hanging on after the Lakers charged back with a 19-2 run, turning to a zone defence and forcing turnovers that led to easy baskets.

With Denver's lead down to four, Murray made a three-pointer with 2:16 remaining.

He then found Paul Millsap under the basket for a score before hitting a long three to push the lead back to 111-99 with 53 seconds to play.

"We feel that we should be up 2-1 right now, to be honest," Murray said. "So we're just going to move on to Game 4."

Australian Associated Press