Harris hurt in huge win
NUGGETS 120, PISTONS 113 Gary unable to finish game because of leg injury; star guard’s MRI scheduled for Friday
Gary Harris delivered the play that helped prevent an unimaginable collapse for the Nuggets on Thursday night. But his tide- turning three- point play at the Pepsi Center may have come at a cost.
The contested dunk by Harris midway through the fourth quarter stemmed a Pistons run that had seen Detroit trim a 26- point Denver lead to just five midway through the final period. Ultimately, it helped Denver hold on for a desperately needed 120- 113 victory, but the Nuggets finished the game without Harris, who crashed under the basket after he was fouled, got up gingerly and, after making his free throw, left for the locker room.
Initial X- rays of Harris’ knee area were negative. He will have an MRI on Friday.
“It’s still sore right now, but we’ll see,” said Harris, who was vague on the specifics of the injury.
Behind a triple- double from Nikola Jokic, the Nuggets held on without Harris, but a game that players had called “a must- win” produced far more anxiety than they cared for after building a 96- 70 edge with five minutes left in the third quarter.
The Pistons used an 18- 2 run, sparked by red- hot 3- point shooting from Blake Griffin and Anthony Tolliver, to quickly get back into the game. A maligned bench that had helped spark the Nuggets to a 14- point halftime lead suddenly went cold when it was called upon in the second half.
“The concerning thing for me is that’s becoming a bad habit for us,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone. “We play really well and we build leads … and you allow teams back in. That can’t happen.”
The Nuggets pushed their lead back to 10 points following Harris’ exit in the fourth quarter, but Detroit trimmed that lead to 113- 107 with 1: 20 left on a jump shot by Dwight Buycks. But a reverse
layup by Will Barton ( 23 points) pushed the lead back to eight points, and Denver held on from there.
The victory pushed the Nuggets ( 38- 31) into a ninth- place tie in the Western Conference with the Clippers. The Spurs, by virtue of their victory over the Pelicans, remained one game ahead in the eighth slot. The seventh- place Jazz also remained one game in front of Denver after beating the Suns.
The Nuggets’ bench unit, which struggled mightily in a loss to the Lakers on Tuesday, was big for Denver early. Barton, Devin Harris and Trey Lyles combined for 31 first- half points, helping transform a four- point edge after the first quarter into a 65- 51 halftime lead.
But the Nuggets also needed every bit of Jokic’s eighth tripledouble of the season — 23 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists — to avoid what would have been a catastrophic blow to their postseason hopes. Jokic was aggressive early, scoring 10 points in the first six minutes of the game.
The Nuggets also cashed in on a strong performance from secondyear point guard Jamal Murray, who scored 26 points, hit 5of- 8 shots from 3- point range and also collected nine rebounds.
Up next for the Nuggets: a 15day, seven- game road trip that will likely determine their postseason fate. The question late Thursday night was whether they’ll begin the trip with Gary Harris ready to play.
“I don’t know what it is,” he said. “We’ll figure it out, and we’ll just go from there.”