NBA playoffs: Nikola Jokić, N...

DENVER — Anthony Davis smiled, Nikola Jokić shrugged — one of the rare moments where two titans collide at the same position for 40 minutes, battling it out directly against one another with real stakes.

Jokić hit one of those contested buzzer-beaters to send Ball Arena into a high at the end of the third quarter, prompting the reaction of respect from Davis. And if Game 1 is any indication for the rest of this series, the line for the NBA’s best big men will start behind these two.

Jokić struck first blood in the Western Conference finals with yet another historic evening as the Denver Nuggets held off the Los Angeles Lakers 132-126 Tuesday night. The two-time MVP saw his reign end recently, but unlike Joel Embiid, he showed up throughout this opener.

Jokić put up 34 points, 21 rebounds and 14 assists, getting off to the best possible start as the Nuggets took full advantage of the Denver altitude, jumping on the Lakers before a swift second-half response made a runaway a very close game.

In the first two rounds, teams stayed away from Davis on defense, and it was unknown how Jokić would approach the matchup. But the answer was in the opening minutes when he went right at him — first on the offensive glass with tip-ins then driving around Davis for dunks.

“It’s a playoff. We need to be aggressive. We need to win the game,” Jokić said. “Especially in front of our home crowd, especially because they won two Game 1s. So I think being aggressive, it’s normal right now.”

Davis didn’t quite fall asleep, it was just superior moves by a legendary player who happened to make All-NBA second team behind Embiid.

“I thought when he felt there was one-on-one coverage, facing up and getting to the basket and using that understated athleticism to finish in traffic,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. “That was great to see.”

As for the high-arching 3-pointer at the buzzer, Jokić said simply, “Sometimes luck is on our side. It’s a crazy shot, of course. It’s not something that I work on. I’m glad it went in.”

Everyone was aware the Lakers marched into Golden State and Memphis, stealing the series openers then taking care of home court. So Jokić’s start was an appropriate one. His 30-20-10 showing was the fourth such performance in NBA history and he owns two of them while also being the first to do it since the ABA-NBA merger.

“His aggression, him driving the ball, dunking the ball in traffic,” Malone said. “We always talk about an aggressive Nikola Jokić is a very effective Nikola Jokić. A hell of a job by him.”

But the Lakers didn’t hide, and the response was led by Davis. The Nuggets showed they weren’t going to be awed by the conference finals stage, playing to the level of their postseason consistency, but the Lakers have a sense of timing throughout the course of a game.

They trailed by as many as 20 multiple times in the third, but it always felt they were within a good enough distance. Davis was relentless with his appetite for scoring — finishing with a game-high 40 points on 14-of-23 shooting. Since stopping Jokić seems futile, with yet another triple-double (six in these playoffs) and him shooting 70%, the first player to have back-to-back triple-doubles with that efficiency, the best defense is more offense.

By the time the fourth rolled around, Jokić’s aforementioned shot, along with Jamal Murray’s shot-clock beater over LeBron James, weren’t just exclamation points in a blowout win. It was necessary and fortuitous, along with Michael Porter Jr. digging out a loose ball with 2:34 left and the Nuggets clinging to a 4-point lead.

Seconds later, Aaron Gordon finished an alley-oop from Murray to give Ball Arena reason to breathe after an anxiety-filled second half. Murray, who’s been battling what’s best described as a “bug,” stepped up to score 31 with 5 rebounds and 5 assists.

He was listed as questionable before the game, but there seemed to be little doubt he would play.

“Manageable. Yeah, I got an ear infection on Saturday,” Murray said. “You know how ear infections are; they hurt a lot. Just kind of wait it out. Couldn’t really do much, like you said, on Saturday and Sunday.”