LeBron James scored 34 points on Monday night at Ball Arena, drove the lane for the go-ahead layup with 41 seconds to play, and walked off the floor with a 112-108 road win that pulled the eighth-seeded Los Angeles Lakers even with the top-seeded Denver Nuggets at one game apiece — the most consequential result of the NBA’s first round through its opening three days and one that has already redrawn the West’s pre-bracket assumptions.

The Lakers’ Game 2 victory, two nights after a 16-point Game 1 loss in the same building, ended a stretch of three consecutive Denver playoff wins over Los Angeles dating to the 2024 second round and shifted the series to Crypto.com Arena for Games 3 and 4 on Thursday and Saturday. James, who said before the series that the Nuggets matchup would “test every single thing I’ve learned about Denver,” added 9 rebounds, 7 assists and the decisive defensive possession, stripping Denver guard Jamal Murray on a drive with 14 seconds left and the Lakers up by two.

“We didn’t come in here trying to split. We came in here trying to win both,” James said in a courtside interview after the final buzzer, his voice hoarse. “We got one. That’s the job tonight. Thursday is its own job.”

Lakers head coach JJ Redick, in his second postseason on the bench, said the team’s defensive adjustments after Saturday’s loss had centered on Murray and on closing the corner three-point line, where Denver had hit 9 of 14 attempts in Game 1. The Nuggets shot 4 of 17 from the corners Monday. Murray, who scored 31 in the opener, finished with 18 points on 6-of-19 shooting.

“The film told us where we lost the first game,” Redick said in his postgame news conference. “Murray got downhill at will and their corners were wide open. We tried to take both away tonight. We didn’t take both away — they’re too good for that — but we made each one harder.”

Denver center Nikola Jokic posted 28 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists for his second triple-double of the series. Asked afterward whether the Nuggets had been outworked, Jokic offered a familiar shrug. “We lost a basketball game,” he said. “They made shots, we missed shots, we go to Los Angeles. That is the playoffs. Nobody is panicking.”

Around the rest of the West bracket, Game 2s split. The fourth-seeded Golden State Warriors held off the No. 5 Phoenix Suns 109-104 on Monday night in San Francisco to take a 2-0 lead despite Devin Booker’s 38 points; the Houston Rockets, the West’s third seed, lost their second straight at home to the No. 5 Minnesota Timberwolves and now trail 2-0 heading into Wednesday’s Game 3 at Target Center. Oklahoma City, the second seed, took a 2-0 lead over the Sacramento Kings on Sunday afternoon and travels to Sacramento for Game 3 on Thursday.

The Eastern Conference followed a similar pattern. Boston, the East’s top seed, swept its opening two games against the Chicago Bulls behind 37 points from Jayson Tatum on Saturday and a 28-point, 11-assist performance from Derrick White on Monday night, and shifted to Chicago for a Wednesday Game 3 with the Bulls already facing a 2-0 hole. Cleveland leads Miami 2-0 after the Heat’s Jimmy Butler aggravated his right knee in the third quarter Monday and did not return; coach Erik Spoelstra said Tuesday morning Butler would be re-evaluated before Game 3 in Miami on Thursday but called him “questionable at best.”

The most competitive Eastern series so far is the third-seeded New York Knicks against the sixth-seeded Indiana Pacers, who split the first two games at Madison Square Garden. Indiana’s Tyrese Haliburton scored 31 points in Sunday’s Game 1 win, then was held to 14 in Monday’s Game 2 loss as Knicks guard Jalen Brunson poured in 42. The series moves to Indianapolis for Game 3 on Thursday and Game 4 on Saturday.

“Two teams that know each other inside and out, in a building that’s going to get loud — that’s what the second round of last year looked like, and that’s where we are again,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle told reporters at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on Tuesday morning. “We were the lower seed last year, too. We know how to handle the road part of it.”

The Milwaukee Bucks, who entered the postseason as the East’s No. 5 seed and dropped Game 1 on Sunday in Orlando, evened their series Tuesday afternoon with a 117-105 win behind 41 points from Giannis Antetokounmpo. The Bucks-Magic series shifts to Milwaukee for Wednesday’s Game 3.

The NBA’s broadcast schedule for the rest of the week was finalized late Monday night. ESPN and TNT split coverage of the Wednesday-through-Saturday games, with the Lakers-Nuggets Game 3 holding the Thursday-night marquee window. League commissioner Adam Silver, asked in Denver before Monday’s tip-off whether playoff security protocols put in place during the Iran war would be eased now that a ceasefire had taken hold, said arena-perimeter procedures would remain at their elevated level “through at least the second round” and that the league would reassess in mid-May.

Major League Baseball, meanwhile, finished the season’s third week with the Detroit Tigers and Baltimore Orioles still atop the American League at 13-5 and 13-4 respectively after splitting their weekend series in Camden Yards. The Yankees, who lost two of three to the Tigers in Detroit over the weekend, fell to 7-11 and dropped to last in the AL East. In the National League, the San Diego Padres took three of four from the Los Angeles Dodgers at Petco Park; the Dodgers’ bullpen blew two more late-inning leads and the team is now 7-11, fourth in the NL West. Atlanta’s Ronald Acuna Jr., placed on the injured list April 13 with a hamstring strain, was upgraded Tuesday to “running on flat ground” and could return early next week, the Braves said.

Game 3 of the Lakers-Nuggets series is scheduled for 10 p.m. Eastern on Thursday in Los Angeles. Redick said Tuesday that James would have a normal practice day Wednesday and was not on the injury report. Denver coach Michael Malone, asked after Monday’s loss whether his rotation would change for Game 3, said only, “We’ll see what the film says. We’ll be ready.”