DENVER — The nature of the NBA’s 82-game regular season naturally creates situations like the Lakers faced on Friday night against the Denver Nuggets.

On the road and down four of their five starters. Without six of their top-eight rotation players. All during a stretch of six games in eight days, including three back-to-back sets, with Friday capping off the first one.

When the Lakers’ injury report came out Friday, which revealed that Luka Doncic, Dorian Finney-Smith and Gabe Vincent would join the list of the team’s unavailable players, the matchup against the Nuggets could’ve been viewed as a schedule loss.

The Lakers didn’t treat it that way.

They nearly pulled off an improbable victory at Ball Arena before falling to the Nuggets 131-126 after Jamal Murray’s late go-ahead 3-pointer and Russell Westbrook’s dunk that sealed the win for Denver.

Austin Reaves (37 points, 13 assists, eight rebounds) and Dalton Knecht (32 points) led the short-handed Lakers, with both making clutch plays down the stretch that kept them in the game before eventually suffering their fourth straight loss, finishing the four-game trip winless.

With the Lakers trailing 124-123, Reaves stripped reigning MVP Nikola Jokic for his third steal of the game and converted a layup on the other end to put the Lakers up by one with just over a minute left after they had trailed by 13 in the third.

Knecht helped add to that lead after a Murray turnover led to the rookie dunking in transition to put the Lakers up by three — with Knecht cramping up on takeoff and taking a hard fall on his head/back but staying in the game with the Lakers up 126-123 with 52 seconds left.

With little time to go over defensive plans during a timeout as coach JJ Redick checked on Knecht after his fall, Jokic (28 points, seven rebounds, five assists, three steals) converted an and-1 floater over Christian Koloko, making the free throw to tie the game at 126 apiece.

After Reaves missed a jumper that would’ve put the Lakers up by two, Murray (26 points, five assists, four rebounds) sprung free from out of a pick and roll with Jokic, knocking down a pull-up 3 to put the Nuggets up 129-126.

Westbrook (17 points, seven assists, six rebounds) picked off Shake Milton’s inbounds pass on the Lakers’ ensuing possession, scoring the game-sealing bucket.

Milton (16 points, five rebounds, three assists) and two-way guard (10 points, six rebounds) both scored in double figures for the Lakers with the increased playing time opportunities.

Koloko (eight points, seven rebounds) impressed with his second-half defense, altering multiple shots at the rim that didn’t end with blocks and denying Jokic the ball late.