This author couldn’t tell you the last time the Clippers and Jazz lost on the same night. That information is public, and the research is unlikely to be particularly taxing, but there’s little need to engage in it as every Nugget fan is sure to share this same thought — it’s feels like a lifetime since Denver caught a break in this merciless Western Conference Playoff Race.
The Nuggets caught a slight one on Friday night as the aforementioned contenders slipped and Denver held their ground against the Wizards with a 108-100 victory. Finally, a modicum of relief for this Nuggets squad — but they’re far from out of the woods.
Denver entered the night without their most consistent player and their leading scorer, Gary Harris. That’s a tough pill to swallow, but hardly an excuse at this point in the season, and one that certainly wouldn’t play given that the Wizards were still without their All-Star guard, John Wall. Denver didn’t have to search for excuses though as Jamal Murray, Nikola Jokic and Will Barton took turns plugging the proverbial leaks in the wall and holding a lead that Murray built early on.
Murray has developed a knack for getting real hot, real fast. He’s a microwave player, and he was cooking early against the Wizards. Denver needed someone to create offense given that Millsap had one of his worst games as a Nugget, — it’s worth noting that he was downgraded to questionable with an illness prior to the game — Wilson Chandler just didn’t have it, and Jokic was slow to get it going. So Murray did what’s slowly becoming routine for the 21-year-old — he took over.
Murray dropped 20 points on 7-11 from the field and 4-7 from deep to lay the cracked foundation of a particularly good half of basketball from the Nuggets. Those cracks were filled by the Nuggets ultimate glue guy, Barton, and some solid basketball from Torrey Craig and Devin Harris off the bench. It didn’t hurt that Washington couldn’t but a bucket, and Denver held a halftime lead that looked like it must have belonged to a game that didn’t include the Nuggets: 55-43.
In the second half, the Nuggets reconnected and flirted heavily with their favorite crush — total catastrophe. Again, Denver choked away a sizable lead on the road, this time wasting a strong quarter from Nikola Jokic and forfeiting 33 points to the Wizards, who held the Nuggets to just 23. The Wizards would gain and lose the lead two more times in a game that the Nuggets simply could not afford to lose.
After the game, Will Barton told Chris Dempsey of Altitude that he understood he was the “fall guy” on this team — a player mold that exists on any good squad, he claimed. Barton has become a bit of a polarizing player this season; a player whose approach never seems to change — a fearless bucket-getter who roams the hardwood like the physical manifestation of the mantra that boils basketball down to its simplest terms: it’s a make or miss game. Barton never changes, it’s just that sometimes the shots don’t fall. And when they don’t his misses seem to clank off the rim much louder than others. His shots fell on Friday night though, and he was one of the best players on the court in the fourth quarter.
The Nuggets held on for a 108-100 win and Nuggets fans presumably, and collectively, let out a deep breath. The team has quality wins, and their season record sits above .500. It’s not that wins are seldom for Denver, it’s that seemingly every time one comes, the rest of the West finds one too. But on Friday, Denver gained ground. The teams the Nuggets are sandwiched between in the standings finally faltered and Denver now sits just one loss behind the Jazz for the eighth and final spot.
The Nuggets next game tips off on Monday night as their ridiculous road trip takes them to the City of Brotherly Love as they take on the Philadelphia 76ers.
