Can't publish npm package to nexus 2

Hi everyone,
I’m facing this error: "Unable to authenticate, need: BASIC realm=“Sonatype Nexus Repository Manager”.

Nexus version: 2.15.0
npm: 8.19.2
My user has all necessary rights I need to publish my package on the Nexus server.
I googled and read almost all posts about this error on StackOverFlow and they usually say I need to enable the Bearer Token on Nexus, but I don’t have this option on Nexus 2. It exist only on Nexus 3.
I’ve set the .npmrc with the right conf, user, registry, always-auth and _auth.
Have you faced this issue? Any ideas? Thank you so much for your help in advance.
Kind regards,
Fatima