The restart of the NBA season blessed fans with a high-octane series between the Denver Nuggets and Utah Jazz, a roller-coaster ride that offered plenty to get the blood flowing for the remainder of the postseason.
Despite being only a first-round affair, Nuggets-Jazz had it all, with high-scoring games, a matchup between two stars on the rise, and a down-to-the-wire finish to add some drama into the mix.
There were numerous records set during this wild series:
👉 Most combined points in a playoff series (475)
👉 Most and 2nd most threes in a playoff series
👉 Only pair of opponents with 220+ points each in a playoff series
👉 Mitchell scored fifth most points in a playoff series
👉 Nuggets are the 12th team ever to come back from 3-1 pic.twitter.com/StHTf6rV8d— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) September 2, 2020
Here are three big things that defined this Nuggets-Jazz series, which ended with Denver barely coming out on top.
A 3-1 comeback
Denver became the 12th team in NBA history to come out alive after facing a 3-1 hole, and the last since the Cleveland Cavaliers overcame that same deficit in the 2016 NBA Finals.
The Nuggets looked to be on their way out, as the Jazz mounted a swift assault to put them on the verge of elimination. Denver fought back from 15 points down in last Tuesday's Game 5 to snag one back, thanks to Jamal Murray's 42 points, eight rebounds, and eight assists last Tuesday:
This was a day before the NBA came to a halt due to protests of racial inequality and police brutality. One can argue the protests that halted play for the next three days helped the Nuggets regroup and make that last push (also helped give defensive ace Gary Harris more time to recover), but it could have had the opposite effect on the Jazz, who failed to put the finishing touches on the series.
Regardless of the reason, the Nuggets were able to keep their poise and string together three straight wins to move onto a second-round matchup against the Los Angeles Clippers.
In addition to Jamal Murray's fireworks show, Nikola Jokic proved to be a stabilizing force throughout the series, averaging 26.1 points, 8.1 rebounds, and 5.4 assists, double-doubling in three of the seven games and never shooting below 45% in any game of the series.
A Jamal Murray-Donovan Mitchell showdown
The NBA can't feel any better about where the league will be heading once LeBron James hangs them up, already having shown the incandescent potential of guys like Devin Booker, Damian Lillard, Murray, and Mitchell.
The latter two went toe-to-toe since Game 1, as Murray's clutch shotmaking during the fourth and overtime periods did the work to give the Nuggets the initial lead in this series:
Even a career-high 57 points from Donovan Mitchell couldn't stop “The Blue Arrow” from finding the target after each play, resulting in a 135-125 overtime win.
Mitchell returned the favor in Game 4, as he racked up 51 points in a down-to-the-wire game that put the Nuggets in that 3-1 hole. Murray had 50 points of his own but fell just short of pulling his team even in a 129-127 loss:
Murray continued his scoring assault, netting 42 points in Game 5 and another 50-piece in Game 6 to send the series to a do-or-die scenario.
Mitchell and Murray combined for the most points between opposite stars in a playoff series (475). Mitchell (33) tallied the most 3-pointers in a playoff series and Murray (32) had the second-most, surpassing the duo of Stephen Curry (32 twice) and Klay Thompson (30), who owned the three previous best marks. They are also the only two opponents in NBA history to have tallied 220 points each in a playoff series.
Needless to say, the clash of Jamal Murray and Donovan Mitchell kept fans glued to the TV as they traded buckets throughout the series — one they won't soon forget.
An unexpected Game 7
Fans, analysts, and pundits were expecting yet another titillating matchup full of buckets between the Jazz and the Nuggets, but that is far from what they got in Game 7. Instead, they were treated to the NBA version of the UConn vs. Butler 2011 NCAA Championship Game.
Sure, the Nuggets and Jazz didn't combine for a measly 94 points like the two aforementioned college teams did, but neither NBA team shot over 40% from the floor in Game 7, likely gassed out from a long series.
Murray and Mitchell were no longer trading buckets as they had the entire series, but instead, each picked the right moment to go on a flurry. What had been a fireball of a series soon became a poorly lit lamp looking for a bigger spark.
The Nuggets took a 50-36 lead to halftime before Donovan Mitchell turned it up after scoring only seven points in the first half, bringing the Jazz to within five points at the end of the third and eventually giving Utah the lead in the fourth.
Jamal Murray had a rough go of it for much of the night, dealing with a sore quad after colliding with Joe Ingles early in the game. Yet he picked the best time to come up big, just like he did in Game 1 of the series.
Murray buried two key shots — a pull-up over Mitchell with 2:44 left in the fourth to answer a layup at the other end, and a tough lay-in against Rudy Gobert to give his team a 78-74 lead with 1:43 left:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZgFQqDafAo
Nikola Jokic had played well all series long, but Gobert was making life hard on him in the paint, forcing him into awkward finishes, traveling violations, and highly contested looks in the restricted area.
The last half-court offensive play didn't fare much different for the Nuggets, except that Jokic found a little bit of genius, taking the bump from a very physical Gobert and burying a fading hook to give the Nuggets a two-point lead with 27.8 seconds left — a shot that proved to be the game-winner.
The remaining seconds had all the magic of the previous game, as a fast-railing Mitchell turned the ball over trying to manufacture offense on his own, only for Torrey Craig to miss a wide-open bunny at the other end.
A Mike Conley 3-point runner teased the rim in, then out, giving the Nuggets a grueling 80-78 victory and the Jazz a painful defeat after boasting a 3-1 lead.
It was perhaps a poetic ending to this series that was defined by insane shotmaking, timely buckets, and momentum. The Nuggets held on after mustering only 30 points in the second half, with just enough gas to put the Jazz out of their misery in the deciding moments of the game. Both teams shot the ball hideously in Game 7, but it made for an adrenaline-filled fourth quarter, which is as much as NBA fans can ask of a first-round series.
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