![]() Maybe they’re going to think, ‘Oh, what are they going to do now?’ So you’re just trying to mess up their game.” You’re just trying something just to change rhythm, change whatever. There was a big break between the third quarter and fourth quarter, basically eight minutes or a 10-minute break, so I felt like I can go a little bit longer. Coach looked at me and I said I was ready to go. “It was a must-win game for us,” Jokić told reporters afterward. Buoyed by an extended rest at the end of the third quarter created by a replay review, Jokić was eager to stay on the court. Typically, Jokić takes his second-half rest at the start of the final period, but he sensed the gravity of the moment. Meanwhile, as the final period was set to begin, Jokić, who had played the entire third quarter, let Malone know he was good to start the fourth. Murray’s 23 points in the final period marked the 26-year-old’s fourth career playoff game with a 20-plus-point fourth quarter, the most in NBA since 1997. What happened next was remarkable, but not entirely unexpected at this point. “Don’t lose any confidence,” Murray told himself. By the end of the third quarter, Murray had missed 12 of his 17 shot attempts. Though they had largely limited the impact of Game 1 star Anthony Davis, they weren’t shutting off much else within the Lakers’ offense. They were once again blowing defensive assignments. Their 3-point shooting had betrayed them. Midway through the third quarter Thursday, the Nuggets looked gassed. ![]() But perhaps most vital is an ability to embrace the uncomfortable fact that things will inevitably go wrong. So much has to go right for a team to win a championship. That kind of staunch belief is forged through hurt and the growth that follows. “This wasn’t a comeback,” he said as cameras caught him striding to the locker room after pouring in 23 fourth-quarter points. Denver trailed by as many as 11 points on their home floor Thursday, but as far as Murray was concerned? ![]() ![]() Of all the interesting postgame soundbites that came out of Game 2, perhaps this line from Murray best explains why the Nuggets have found themselves in this place now, so close to a new frontier for the franchise. The Nuggets knew they were shorthanded as they began Jokić-led postseason runs in 20, but coming up short of their championship destination still brought more pain.īut what this Nuggets team is now - 10-3 in the playoffs and 8-0 at home - is a group wearing its scars proudly. Then came two years of postseasons without Murray following his ACL tear. Murray exploded in the Orlando bubble in 2020, but that run, too, ended sooner than the Nuggets believed it should have - with a 4-1 series loss to the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals. Murray said last week the Nuggets truly believed they could win a championship that year - even if few others did - so the Game 7 loss, on their own court, cut deeper than most realized.īut in a league where coming up short can create quick, and often overreactive, franchise-altering decisions, the Nuggets’ stayed the course, banking on growth and continuity between their fiery head coach, Michael Malone, and his two young stars. They did it again one year later, when they lost a Game 7 heartbreaker at home in the Western Conference semifinals to the Portland Trail Blazers, in a game where Murray couldn’t find his shot. They picked up the pieces after that night in Minnesota. The Nuggets may have a new-kid-on-the-block feel to much of the world just tuning in at this stage of the playoffs, but they have very much been here before. A few feet away, Murray, after being asked by a reporter whether the loss was the toughest he had ever stomached, stared blankly ahead for several seconds, making the answer obvious without uttering a word.Īs the Nuggets on Thursday night pulled to within two wins of the franchise’s first-ever trip to the NBA Finals by virtue of a 108-103 win over the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals, their poise and toughness down the stretch was a reminder that the strongest winning foundations are often built atop the rubble of past failure. When it was over, Jokić wore the hurt on his face. The Timberwolves went on to win in overtime. But with a chance to win the game on the final possession of regulation, Jokić, still new to the pressures of pivotal moments, had the ball stolen away by veteran Taj Gibson.
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