The Los Angeles Lakers led the Denver Nuggets by 20 points in the second half but couldn't close the defending NBA champions out en route to a 101-99 road loss in Game 2 of their first round playoff series.

One day later, Lakers star LeBron James stressed the importance of closing out games and noted how L.A. failed to do so in this instance.

"It's all about sustainability," James said, per ESPN's Dave McMenamin.

"It doesn't matter what you can do throughout the first 47½ minutes. You got to close the game, which we didn't do. We got to do a better job of that. But some of the things that we've done over the first couple games, we're very excited and happy about those.

"But we got to do a better job of closing it."

L.A. held an 89-81 lead with just over five minutes remaining, but Denver got hot down the stretch. Nuggets point guard Jamal Murray scored six points in the final minute, including the game-tying and game-winning buckets.

In Game 1, the Lakers led by as many as 12 points in the second quarter, but Denver dominated the second half, specifically outscoring L.A. 32-18 in the third.

The Lakers have now lost 10 straight games to the Nuggets (including playoffs). However, their performance in Game 2 was certainly encouraging, even if the Lakers didn't win.

But now L.A. is back home and needs to win at least one of its next two to keep this one going. Game 3 will go down Thursday at 10 p.m. ET.