But it was refreshing too now that ski-ball has taken over, the pendulum swinging so far to the perimeter. It was the scratching, clawing kind of game that, let’s face it, was all too common in the ‘90s, before shot value and true shooting and other analytics pushed the game out to the corners and just out, out, period. He challenged Denver players who intruded through the lane and, despite Nikola Jokic’s 30 points, made the Nuggets center work hard or stray outside. Center Rudy Gobert, after being hampered by early fouls, got more aggressive. The Nuggets trapped effectively against Utah’s pick-and-roll, too, especially early in the largely halfcourt game. It was far from the style we’ve grown accustomed each spring from Golden State or Houston, a back-and-forth struggle to get and make good looks.Īnd it was tremendous, because, y’know, Game 7.ĭenver used its length effectively early to cut off passing angles and shield the rim. Neither team cracked 40 percent in shooting. Denver got its 30 after the intermission and had to sweat out Mike Conley’s desperation 3-pointer at the buzzer that rimmed out. Utah scored only 36 points in the first half and trailed by 14. Then there was the Game 7 effect, with the pace slowed, possessions treasured and a heavy dose of playing-not-to-lose stirred in.Įach team choked off the other for stretches. So, of course, they both tightened up on the star guards. The team that did it better had a great shot to advance. Only makes sense, right? Both of them spent 48 hours after Game 6 brainstorming ways to at least slow down Murray or Mitchell, respectively. And it’s true, as both agreed, they and their teammates had missed some shots every bit as good as ones that dropped throughout the previous six games.īut the biggest reason the offensive tap got turned off was the level of defense the Northwest Division rivals played. Mitchell was the series’ hardest-working player by far and had to be running on fumes by the end. Murray suffered a bruised left thigh during the action, colliding with Utah’s Joe Ingles as he pushed the ball in transition. “I only had 17, Donovan had 22,” the Nuggets backcourt star said. “Weird” was the word Murray used afterward. Denver’s Murray and Utah’s Mitchell wound up combining for 39 points, about half of what they’d been averaging. Way back in October, when Houston beat Washington 159-158 in the 2019-20 season’s first full week, the Rockets and the Wizards each scored more than the Nuggets and the Jazz posted together Tuesday.ĭenver got 15 points in the third quarter, 15 more in the fourth, and still managed to advance to a Western Conference semifinals matchup with the Los Angeles Clippers (9 ET, TNT). No, 80-78 wasn’t the halftime score - that was the final. In fact, the NBA’s broadcast partners knew they were onto a good thing and started touting the 1-on-1 shootout as soon as Game 7 hit the schedule Sunday.Īnd then the Nuggets and the Jazz dragged everybody back to the 1990s, for an old-school NBA grindfest. There was no reason to think it would stop. They shot their way in, joining the likes of Michael Jordan, Allen Iverson, Jerry West and other big-time postseason points producers by going for 30, 40, even 50 points (twice each) or more. Jamal Murray and Donovan Mitchell had spent most of the series matching bucket for bucket, moment for moment, lighting up not only the scoreboards in the Disney campus but the NBA record book. The way the Denver Nuggets and the Utah Jazz had lit each other up through the first six games of their first-round playoff series - putting up nearly 235 points each game, on average - another scoring spectacle seemed certain. Playing a Game 7 in a time machine is something altogether different. Staging the NBA playoffs in a bubble is one thing.
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