A year after Finals, Lakers and Heat set to play before fans

The Lakers, who won last season’s NBA championship in the restart bubble at Walt Disney World, haven’t won a playoff game in their home arena since May 18, 2012.

Here’s how long ago that was: Lakers forward LeBron James was a month away from his first NBA title in Miami, Suns guard Chris Paul was in his first year of a six-year run with the Clippers (and he’s been with three teams since), and Phoenix center Deandre Ayton was only about a year removed from picking up a basketball for the first time.

“Us just coming home, 1-1, evening up this series and actually playing a real playoff game … for the first time in, what, eight years? It’ll be pretty special for our fans,” James said. “To just have our fans in the building, we want to continue to make them proud. That’s what I came here for, to play a playoff game in front of the Laker faithful.”

Portland won Game 1 of its matchup in Denver before the Nuggets recovered to take Game 2. Over the last three months, no team has been better than Denver on the road. The Nuggets are 14-6 in their last 20 road games, including a regular-season finale loss at Portland in which they didn’t exactly give big minutes to their regular rotation.

Nikola Jokic made 15 of his 20 shots for Denver in Game 2, and the Nuggets had six players in double figures.

“We’ll have to be even better on the road to try and get Game 3,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said.