Jamal Murray signaled for a timeout on behalf of the Grizzlies’ bench. He nodded in approval when they agreed that it was needed.
Playing backyard basketball with Nikola Jokic, Murray had just nonchalantly flipped a pass behind his back to the reigning MVP center, whose floater gave the Nuggets a late 112-108 lead. Denver’s signature two-man game was providing a refreshing reminder of its potency, and Murray was talking his trash on the way back to the bench. It was the emotional apex of a 14-1 closing run to secure a 117-109 comeback win over the Grizzlies in both teams’ most important game of the season.
“I’d buy a ticket to watch that,” David Adelman said afterward, in awe of the firepower of Jokic and Murray.
With one game remaining in the regular season and other Western Conference games still in progress late Friday night, the Nuggets (49-32) were on the verge of clinching a playoff spot that was in danger of eluding them earlier this week amid sweeping personnel changes.
A win at Houston on Sunday will be enough to secure a top-six seed without any help from other games around the league.
“The records are so close, there’s no manipulation going on here,” said Adelman, two games into his interim head coaching tenure. “Like, I have no idea who’s going to win tomorrow, who’s going to win Sunday. Playing at the same time, all that kind of stuff. … I don’t think you can dictate your matchup and all that right now. It’s just so crazy with the records.”
Murray was back in the lineup after missing six games with a hamstring injury. He missed a lot. As the Nuggets struggled through a four-game losing streak without him, Michael Malone couldn’t say with certainty that the star guard would be available for the start of the postseason. Malone ended up losing his job two days later, and Denver snapped out of its funk with a season-saving win in Adelman’s debut at Sacramento.
Whether it would be enough to fully save the Nuggets would depend on what happened next, though. They entered play on Friday night only one game safe from the Play-In Tournament still. And then Memphis showed up looking fresh for a team that played at home the previous night.
Ja Morant and company used an 11-for-25 start from the 3-point line to build a 15-point lead, while Denver missed 12 of its first 13 outside attempts.
Then Adelman adjusted the Nuggets’ pick-and-roll defense to a drop coverage, instead of playing Jokic at the level of the screen. Memphis went 3-for-12 from 3-point range in the second half.
“We tried to do what we do. We were up (the floor). Once they made 3s … it was almost like, we have to drop,” Adelman said. “We’ve gotta put Nikola down the floor. So some of the shots probably looked like easy shots because they were floaters, 10-footers, 12-footers. We decided, let’s just live with that. Stay out of the drive-and-kick.”
The 43-year-old coach was faced with his first tough rotation decision with Murray back. Jalen Pickett was coming off one of his best games of the season as a replacement starter, whereas Russell Westbrook has struggled lately. But as Friday’s game took shape, Westbrook was making a two-way impact and playing relatively mistake-free offensively. He played 26 minutes and provided back-to-back vital defensive plays in the closing lineup — a steal to set up Murray’s dime to Jokic, followed by a block of 7-footer Zach Edey at the rim as the Grizzlies’ shot clock expired.
“I said it before the game: We’re gonna finish with the five guys that are playing well. Mistakenly, people said I didn’t play Russ in Sacramento. That wasn’t the case,” Adelman said. “I played the five people I thought could win the game. And what do you know? Russ played pretty well tonight. So who finished the game? Russ. You’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do to win games. And this is not about one individual person, or trying to make a narrative about one person, or this guy or that guy. Thats not what this is. This is about just trying to win the game.”
The Nuggets went on an 11-2 run to end the first half and kept pace throughout the third quarter of a game that lacked rhythm. The one constant was Aaron Gordon on the baseline. He compiled 33 points despite a lesser 3-point shooting night, getting free in the dunker spot or bullying his way to the rim.
Five Nuggets finished in double figures. Michael Porter Jr. was held to seven points and struggled at the defensive end, ending up on the bench in crunch time while Westbrook closed.
Murray finished with 15 points, five boards and seven assists, finally finding some swagger toward the end of the game — as he does.