It was a simple pick-and-pop play. Jamal Murray drew two defenders as he dribbled to his right and then dished a pass near the top of the key to Nikola Jokic, who fired a trademark high-arching shot from just inside the 3-point line that sailed through the basket.
That make with 1:12 to play gave Jokic his second triple-double and also turned out to be the game-winner for the Nuggets, who finished off their second fourth-quarter rally this week by beating Dallas 91-89 Saturday night at the Pepsi Center.
“We’ve seen him make that (shot) a ton,” coach Michael Malone said of Jokic. “And obviously, it was a big one tonight for him to make that shot …Tonight, obviously Nikola was a guy that made go-to-type plays.”
Jokic’s 11 points, 16 rebounds and 11 assists anchored Denver’s third consecutive win, which increased the Nuggets’ (26-23) lead over the Clippers for the eighth spot in the Western Conference playoff standings to 1 1/2 games. And it was a crucial victory for Denver ahead of a brutal stretch, as the Nuggets next face Eastern Conference-leading Boston and San Antonio on a home-road back-to-back set Monday and Tuesday before hosting Oklahoma City and defending champion Golden State.
Though Jokic sank the deciding bucket, Denver’s defense clamped down throughout the final period to help it crawl out of a nine-point deficit and hold on for the win in the final seconds. The Nuggets limited the Mavericks (16-34) to 15 points on 5-of-20 shooting in the fourth quarter. And while clinging to a two-point lead, Mason Plumlee blocked a Dennis Smith Jr. layup attempt with four seconds left, before Wesley Matthews misfired on a 3-pointer just before time expired.
“We just made them work a little bit harder,” Jokic said.
Denver’s grind-it-out win was quite the departure from Thursday’s shootout against the Knicks, in which the Nuggets exploded for 130 points but gave up 118 in a back-and-forth affair that reminded Malone too much of last season. Yet Saturday was Denver’s sixth win this season when scoring less than 100 points, after recording zero such victories last season as one of the NBA’s worst defensive teams.
“To be a good team in the NBA, you have to be able to win (playing) different styles,” Malone said. “… It shows that late in the game, you have to be able execute on offense. And at the end of the game, you gotta be able to get timely stops.”
The Nuggets did both in the final quarter. Point guard Jamal Murray, who did not start due to an unspecified violation of team rules, scored 10 of his 15 points in the period, including a game-tying 3 with 8:45 to play that capped a 9-0 run to quickly close the gap. Gary Harris (game-high 24 points) drilled a baseline jumper with about four minutes to play to give Denver its first lead since late in the third, then hit a 3 from the left wing to put the Nuggets up 89-86 with 1:52 to play. Jokic’s game-winner came after Matthews answered Harris’ long ball with his own 3-pointer.
The Nuggets and Mavericks got to the tight final minutes after three quarters of drastic runs — and “negative energy” that Malone said bubbled to the surface at points on the bench and in huddles. Denver made its first six shots to build an early 13-point lead, before Dallas surged back to seize a 37-35 advantage on a Smith layup about midway through the second quarter. Then after the Nuggets closed the half on a 15-5 spurt — capped by a stunning Jokic over-the-shoulder touch pass to Trey Lyles for a dunk — to take a 50-42 lead into the locker room, Dallas outscored Denver 32-16 in the third quarter to hold an eight-point edge entering the final frame.
“What I liked was that we found a way to get past that (adversity) and understand that we needed to win this game,” Malone said. “Put all our personal, petty stuff to the side, and let’s remember what our collective goal is.”
Jokic recorded his eighth-career triple-double despite making just five of his 13 field-goal attempts. Reporters needed to jog his memory about his game-winning bucket, because all he could remember was that he missed a 3-pointer and then got called for a charging foul following an offensive rebound on the Nuggets’ next possession.
But his make off the pick-and-pop put the Nuggets ahead down the stretch. Then Denver’s defense finished the job.
“We just had to figure out a way to find a win,” Harris said. “It doesn’t matter how you get it. At the end of the day, as long as we have more points than the other team, it’s a good night.”
