If there is one word to describe Friday night's game for Denver Nuggets fans, it's âphew.â After clunking a potential game-icing free throw in the closing seconds of the slugfest against the San Antonio Spurs, Michael Porter Jr. made up for it with one of the most clutch defensive plays of the season so far.
The way the Spurs-Nuggets game ended is too stressful to watch. đ° pic.twitter.com/HtAdgRP1dY
â ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) April 10, 2021
The Nuggets needed every bit that they could get from their star duo of Porter and big man Nikola Jokic to survive the scrappy Spurs, 121-119, and improve to 33-18 on the season.
The Spurs have proven to be dangerous to every team they've faced this season, as their perimeter trio of DeMar DeRozan, Derrick White and Dejounte Murray have turned themselves into a poor man's big three for head coach Gregg Popovich.
Michael Porter Jr., who finished with 22 points and 10 rebounds, is rightfully the hero of the win for the Nuggets despite Jokic's gaudy stat line. He has also blossomed into a legitimate two-way threat this season after flashing signs of brilliance in the Orlando playoff bubble this past summer. He has almost doubled his per game averages in field goals attempted, made, and points, while almost tripling his rookie numbers in rebounds per game.
More notably, MPJ has done all of that while not just maintaining, but slightly improving on his impressive PER from last season (19.8 to 20.2) for the Nuggets.
Porter has already displayed the clutch gene on the more glamorous side of the ball, so if Friday's game is a good barometer for where he's trending defensively, he is poised to become one of the biggest two-way problems in the league. Between him, Jokic, bubble darling Jamal Murray, and newcomer Aaron Gordon, the Nuggets have absolutely struck gold.
Put simply, they are quickly becoming the scariest young core in the NBA.
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