The Denver Nuggets won the game on 135-129 against the Utah Jazz, but it was far from a comfortable experience for Nuggets fans. Denver had a good first quarter then tried to drown themselves for most of the remaining minutes until surfacing at the very end of the game with some clutch shots and finally a touch of defense to survive a very game Jazz squad. Nikola Jokic had 33 points, 15 rebounds and 12 assists, but also 7 turnovers and not much defense. If he is conserving energy for the playoffs he’s doing it in a way that is very stressful to watch. Jamal Murray set the Denver single-season three-point mark for makes as he scored 31 and added 14 assists and 6 boards. Tim Hardaway Jr. had 21 off the bench while Aaron Gordon showed some nice hops while getting 17 points and 7 rebounds.

Kyle Filipowsi punished Denver inside with 28 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists, while Cody Williams had 24 points and 7 assists and Ace Bailey had 15 points and 7 boards. Denver could not stop Utah’s pick-and-roll and all out attack on the paint until the very end, but the Nuggets did just enough to survive Utah and escape with the wins, and now they only play two games this week and have a chance to rest up a bit and hopefully find out where they’ve stored their defense.

Game Flow

Denver started with an Aaron Gordon pass to Christian Braun that was blocked at the rim, and Ace Bailey for Utah hit a jumper the other way. Jamal Murray got fouled for free throws, then Kyle Filipowski had a pair of rim finishes and another failed layup for Denver turned into an Ace Bailey bucket and an 8-2 Utah lead. After a timeout, Murray had a nice baseline fadeaway, then had a good finish off of a Nikola Jokic assist. The Jazz kept getting every finish at the rim that they wanted though, with Joker’s trip to the line closing it to 12-8. Christian Braun nailed an open three, then fell down in transition to butcher another finish while Utah went the other way for a simple bucket. AG had a one handed soft oop finish, Filipowksi kept scoring at will in the paint, and CB made a Jokic-assisted layup as neither team played a lot of defense. Braun and Tim Hardaway Jr. both missed threes, AG’s stepback behind the arc barely drew iron, but then Gordon finished baseline to give Denver a 19-18 lead as the Jazz finally started missing and Denver played a little bit of defense. A THJ steal turned into a CB dunk, then Murray got fouled on a three pointer as Bailey had to sit with three early fouls. AG had a great block, then finished a fabulous second oop of the game from Joker. Jamal had a great assist to Joker for the 3000th assist in that direction, then pulled up for a pair of threes as Denver’s defense stepped up and Murray’s 15 paced Denver to a 37-26 first quarter lead.

Cam Johnson airballed a three early in the second quarter, Peyton Watson had a great block and then missed a three of his own. John Konchar had a couple of buckets for Utah before Cam hit a corner three, but Konchar hit a rim finish. Hardaway bricked a three, but Peyton Watson had a great block in transition to save a bucket. He then had a great assist on a Bruce Brown three that put Denver back up 43-34. Utah came back with buckets by Konchar and Filipowski, then Watson picked up an offensive foul. He got a bucket but had a terrible turnover as he and Bruce miscommunicated and Utah cut it to 46-41 after their first made three of the game. Joker fed AG for a dunk but Brice Sensabaugh hit another three. Jokic got a traditional three-point play, Cam Johnson was stripped in transition, and Joker made a three after Christian Braun missed one. Cam Johnson hit a three, but Brice Sensabaugh hit a couple more. Jamal hit a tough turnaround for his first points of the second quarter, Filipowski once again finished at the rim, and the teams went into halftime tied at 62.

Filipowski hit a three and Cody Williams made an easy layup to push Utah to the early lead in the third quarter. Jokic had a paint finish, but Bailey answered right back and Filipowski had a dunk as no one wanted to defend him all game. Jokic had another layup and Denver switched to a zone to try to keep Utah from killing them at the rack. Jokic was stripped in what should have been a foul call and it led to another easy Bailey finish and Denver took a timeout down 77-71. It didn’t help, as Denver fell behind by 10 as they failed to rebound or block out and coach David Adelman called another timeout. Murray made a turnaround in the paint, Christian Braun got a block but a silly Murray turnover – Denver’s sixth in the first 7 minutes of the quarter – led to another Bailey transition bucket. Aaron Gordon hit free throws and Hardaway had a transition three to cut the deficit to 7, then Cody Williams traded free throws with Jamal Murray. Konchar had another easy bucket at the rim, followed by Williams for Uta to stretch the lead back to 11. Oscar Tshiebwe joined the Jazz fest with a traditional three-point play, Bruce Brown had a bucket and Tim Hardaway got three free throws in an otherwise quiet night so far, but then hit another three to close the gap to 6. Williams had a Utah dunk, Watson had a Dewnver three, then blocked Bez Mbeng’s shot after his own terrible turnover but Konchar cleaned it up. Jokic hit a turnaround, Kennedy Chandler had a Utah three, but Joker made a 40-foot heave that took several large bounces to go in and left Denver down 105-98 after 3.

Kennedy Chandler hit a bucket for Utah to open the fourth, while Denver missed a few threes and Watson couldn’t make a powerful put-back dunk attempt. Utah just kept driving the basket and Denver had zero answers. Hardaway and Elijah Harkless traded threes, then Bruce Brown was stripped and Watson got blocked but Hardaway made another three. Harkless finished in the paint to make it 112-104 Utah, and Jokic came back in at the 8 minute mark. Bruce Brown traded buckets with Ace Bailey, Jokic had yet another turnover, and Bailey buried a three. Watson made one of two free throws, while Harkless had another easy shot to make. Hardaway made a three but Denver couldn’t make up any ground because the refused to get stops or in any way prevent Utah from getting and making the easiest buckets possible. Jokic made a pair of free throws, Cody Williams had a pair of easy finished, and Jamal Murray hit a three as Denver had given up 124 points to Utah with more than 5 minutes to go and trailed by 7. Aaron Gordon had a great finish and Utah finally missed a shot but Cam Johnson missed a three then helped Denver win a jump ball. Denver closed to 124-121 on free throws before Bailey made a baseline jumper. Cam missed a corner three and Joker couldn’t tip it in. Joker blew another easy finish, but hit a turnaround after a timeout and Cam Johnson hit his three at last off a Jokic assist. Jokic missed a pair of free throws, but Utah missed a couple of shots from the field and then Bailey had a bad turnover. Jamal Murray hit a much-needed step-back three, but Harkless answered with one for the Jazz. Cam hit a crucial three after Joker’s tough rebound, then Jamal forced a turnover and nailed another three and Denver won with about three minutes of execution in the stretch. Denver finished on a 21-5 run and the final score was 135-129.

Final Thoughts

-The Nuggets are unserious in these kinds of games. Denver gave up 40 paint points in the first half. It was a season-high 84 allowed in the paint at the end. Utah is the 21st-ranked offense in the league. They made everything at the rim for three and a half quarters, and Denver didn’t challenge them in any way. If this was supposed to be a “figure out the defense” game it was a total failure. The Nuggets also kept turning the ball over, with Jokic the biggest offender. Denver won, but only because Utah forgot how to score for 5 minutes, whether on purpose or accident. Denver needed the win, and got it, but there’s lots of work to be done to find some championship habits before the postseason because outside of the final few minutes this game had almost none of them. Put this in the victory column and then go find a drink.