LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — The Denver Nuggets didn’t need 50 points from guard Jamal Murray. Nor did they even need 40 or 30 from …
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — The Denver Nuggets didn’t need 50 points from guard Jamal Murray. Nor did they even need 40 or 30 from him. They needed his 17 points, along with All-Star Nikola Jokic’s 30 points,14 rebounds and four assists, Michael Porter Jr.’s 10 points and nine rebounds and Gary Harris’ late-game defense on Utah All-Star Donovan Mitchell. That was enough, just barely, to help the Nuggets become the 12th team in NBA history to come back from a 3-1 deficit and win a series. Denver topped Utah 80-78 in Game 7 on Tuesday, advancing to the Western Conference semifinals where they will play the Los Angeles Clippers. Game 1 is Thursday (9 p.m. ET, TNT). Jokic’s soft turnaround hook shot in the paint with 27.8 seconds left in the fourth quarter put Denver up 80-78, and Utah guard Mike Conley’s 3-pointer at the buzzer of a chaotic finish hit the rim but didn’t go in. So, in the strangest of circumstances – in a bubble shielded from COVID-19, on Disney property in central Florida in an NBA playoff game September – the Nuggets found the mental and physical toughness to win the final three games of the series when logic and odds were not on their side. Even Nuggets coach Michael Malone acknowledged human nature’s toll on the players. Down 3-1, the comforts of family and home looked a lot more attractive than a confined environment. “With everything we were facing, down 3-1, the stoppage of play – are we going to continue, are we not? – a lot of teams would’ve just given in, especially when you consider we’ve been away 57 days from our families,” Malone said, acknowledging the mini-hiatus last week when games were not played in protest following the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
