MURRAY JUMPER LIFTS NUGGETS TO VICTORY
Jamal Murray saved his best for last.
With the shot-clock winding down and the Nuggets staring at another empty possession, Murray took control and dropped a dagger to gut the Hornets.
His jumper with just six seconds left gave the Nuggets a 114112 lead they wouldn’t relinquish. Jerami Grant gave a strong contest on Terry Rozier’s last-ditch 3point attempt, which rimmed out. The win, which comes ahead of a brutal stretch of road games, improved the Nuggets’ record to 4220 and notched their post-break record to 4-3.
“Shot clock was going down, it was at like three when I looked up,” Murray said. “I really didn’t worry about the defender, I just kind of went to my steps and shot. … I’m just going off skill and muscle memory.”
Murray’s shot gave him a teamhigh 18 points, but it was Will Barton’s theatrics that eased the tensions.
Locked in a gripping, fourthquarter tilt with the Hornets, Barton decided to use Charlotte wing Cody Martin’s back as a prop with five minutes to go, bouncing a pass off the unsuspecting defender and jamming it home for a dunk.
As he trotted back to his bench, the score tied at 96, a grin danced across his face.
In the lighthearted postgame locker room, Barton told his teammates all he was worried about was whether Martin was going to turn his back and ruin the spectacle.
“It was a big play, smart play, savvy play by Will Barton in a really short clock situation, big basket, and so maybe it had that effect,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. “My hope would be regardless of that play, I think our guys showed, down the stretch, that we were poised. That’s what we’re used to seeing.”
The move lightened the mood and seemed to liberate his teammates. Murray knocked down a 3pointer and Gary Harris sunk one, too, before the Nuggets eventually hung on.
Nikola Jokic added 14 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists as he was mired in foul trouble all night.
The Hornets reeled off a 16-3 run to open the third quarter, which snapped any of Denver’s defensive momentum and exposed more of their problems. Devonte’ Graham drained two of Charlotte’s four 3-pointers in the quarter, and the turnovers, which have plagued the Nuggets’ offense ever since the break, cropped up again with five in the period alone. Owing to bad offense and disconnected defense, the Hornets took an 8280 lead into the fourth.
Meanwhile, celebrated rookie Michael Porter Jr. sat watching the entire game. Defensiveminded Torrey Craig played over him in a move Malone justified due to the team’s struggling defense. Craig did chip in nine points on 4 of 6 from the field.
Coming off of Tuesday’s disheartening loss at home to Golden State, Malone revealed his team had endured “a very honest film session.” It wasn’t just the Warriors loss that was nagging at him; it was the six games since the All-Star break which have seen their collective defense plummet.
“I’m going to keep talking about it, and I’m going to treat these guys like grown men, which they are,” Malone said prior to the game. “And if they can’t handle the truth, then they’re in the wrong business.
“The best part about it is that film doesn’t lie,” Malone continued. “I can tell them we’re not playing hard enough, I can tell them that we’re not getting back in transition, I can tell them we have to take care of the ball, but when they see it on film, and it’s pointed out and it’s stopped, and it’s rewound, and it’s showed again, there is no debate.”
Malone lamented using the same talking points – rebounding, turnovers and defense – after each loss since the All-Star break.
“Let’s get together in two and half hours, you and I, we’ll sit here in the same spot, and we’re going to talk about this game tonight, and we’ll see if we actually had any semblance of, ‘We have to fix this.’”
The Nuggets tightened the screws on a leaky defense in the second quarter, allowing just 17 points with a more engaged effort. Their offense, which poured in 60 points on 55 percent shooting in the first half, was never the problem.
Led by Paul Millsap’s 11 points along with nine each from Barton and Monte Morris, the Nuggets picked apart Charlotte’s defense over the first two quarters. And after a porous first quarter, their defense finally matched that same urgency on the other end.