LeBron James struggles, tweaks injured foot as Lakers’ optimistic plan

DENVER — Once upon a time LeBron James was the playoff Swiss army knife, putting cold water on your best player while controlling it on the other end.

We saw it against Derrick Rose well over a decade ago, and now Rose’s polar opposite was standing in front of James for long stretches, sapping whatever energy James had left as he tried to engineer an upset.

James nor the rest of the Lakers could shut off the charging Denver Nuggets in Game 2 of the Western Conference finals, with Jamal Murray taking center stage in the fourth quarter on the way to a 108-103 win at Ball Arena.

James’ shooting has abandoned him this series, illustrating the fact he is, indeed, 38 years old and no longer operating with an endless reservoir of energy. Murray was unbothered by whatever defense the Lakers threw at him in the fourth, rebounding from a sluggish start to score 23 of his game-high 37 points.

Bubble Murray? Let’s call him May Murray now.

Conversely, James struggled.

He missed all six of his 3-point attempts, and while he admirably competed against Nikola Jokić, neither he nor Anthony Davis seemed to have enough left in the tank to fend off the Nuggets in the fourth.

He missed one of those forever young breakaway dunks in the first half, much to the delight of the Ball Arena crowd. And multiple times when the Lakers seemingly had the Nuggets on the ropes, leading by 11 early in the third quarter, they couldn’t quite put them away.

James called the rare mishap, “horrible.”

“Obviously, that sucks that that ball squirted out of my hand like that, whatever the case may be, maybe hit my knee or whatever, but unforced turnover by myself,” James said. “Those are momentum plays.”

And now it’s the Lakers on the ropes, losing two games in a row for the first time in over two months and being unable to steal a road game unlike against their first two playoff opponents.

“They’re like us, they’re undefeated at home. We knew it was going to be a challenge,” Lakers…