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Prior to Wednesday night’s game against the Knicks, Nuggets coach Mike Malone talked about “next man up.”
As in what had to happen to capture a victory with two-time MVP Nikola Jokic out of the lineup? The Nuggets’ center entered health and safety protocol Tuesday night.
As it turned out, the man Malone was looking for failed to show up in crunch time and the Knicks rallied for a rare 106-103 win at Ball Arena.
How rare? New York had not beaten the Nuggets in Denver since Nov. 8, 2006, a span of 14 consecutive losses.
The Nuggets overcame a sluggish first half and seemed to take control late behind the play of guards Jamal Murray and Bones Hyland. But Denver’s offense was disjointed down the stretch and New York’s Jalen Brunson sunk two free throws with 10.5 seconds left to seal the deal.
The Knicks, led by Julius Randal’s 34 points, were down 96-86 with 8:44 left in the game but their physical play got the Nuggets out of rhythm and the Nuggets committed five turnovers in crunch time.
“They took us out of our offense, as a group, and we were kind of discombobulated,” Murry said.
With Jokic out, Murray, naturally, tried to put the game on his shoulders and scored 21 points and nine rebounds. But he was just 7 of 20 from the field and his desperation 3-point attempt at the buzzer found nothing but air.
And Hyland, coming back from illness, wasn’t scheduled to play much, but he put on a show in his 23 minutes, scoring 21 points and draining five 3-pointers on 10 attempts. Included in his performance was a buzzer-beater 3-pointer at the end of the third quarter that brought the crowd to its feet.
“There was a stretch in that fourth quarter where Bones was kind of keeping up alive, he made some big shots,” Malone said. “There were a lot of positives for us tonight but just not enough for us to get the win.”
Malone and Hyland both said it was a victory that the Nuggets let slip away.
“They just out-toughed us,” Hyland said. “They took us off our spots and we couldn’t get into our offense for some reason. That was the key down the stretch, so credit to them.
“But we definitely should have beat that team. The turnovers were big and that was unacceptable for us.”
New York stretched its lead to 66-60 with 8:16 left in the third quarter when Malone called for a timeout and a little bit of regrouping. It did the trick. The Nuggets went on a 9-0 run to take a 69-66 lead on Murray’s 27-foot running jumper.
But the hometown Nuggets, not the visiting Knicks, faded in the fourth quarter.
Michael Porter Jr., so good in the Nuggets’ victory at Chicago when he scored 31 points (including 6 of 9 on 3s) in just 24 minutes, was AWOL Wednesday night, scoring just five points. Porter scored just three points, hitting just one shot on eight shots from the field (1 for 6 on 3-pointers), in the first half as the Knicks took a 55-54 lead.
If the Knicks were experiencing any high-altitude hangover after beating the Jazz Tuesday night at Salt Lake, they didn’t show it in the first quarter. Led by Randle’s 12 points, they led 30-27.
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