DENVER — Michael Porter Jr. can barely raise his left arm to get dressed.
The grade 2 sprain to his shoulder is an injury that would normally keep him out of action for at least a month. But when told of that timetable by the Denver Nuggets training staff at the time of the initial injury, Porter simply shook his head and said he wasn’t sitting out. So, on Friday night, after the Nuggets took a 2-1 lead over the Oklahoma City Thunder in their Western Conference semifinal matchup, Porter walked to the podium with his left arm hanging limp by his side. Underneath his sweat suit was a thick bag of ice. And to prepare himself to even play in Denver’s wild 113-104 win over OKC at Ball Arena on Friday night, he had to take an injection of lidocaine.
In many ways, Porter encapsulates the Nuggets as a whole. Bruised and battered, this rag-tag bunch is making a playoff run that borders on the improbable. A month ago, this Denver franchise was reeling, having cleaned house in the front office. Now, after a seven-game series win over the LA Clippers in the first round, and two wins over OKC this week, the Nuggets, with an interim head coach steering the ship, are two wins away from upsetting the best team in the NBA and advancing to the Western Conference finals.
“We just knew that we had to stay in it and stay close,” Denver interim coach David Adelman said. “We know that the longer we can stay in the game, the better chance we can give ourselves, because those guys are playing big minutes like we are. It just felt good to find a way to win.”
Through the first three games of this series, the Nuggets have held a lead for a grand total of 17 minutes and 22 seconds. The Thunder have held a lead for 123 minutes and 17 seconds, or roughly 82 percent of the series. So, how do the Nuggets have a series lead heading into Sunday afternoon’s Game 4? How have they taken an Oklahoma City team that won 68 games in the regular season and reduced it to what amounts to a must-win scenario in a little under 48 hours? And how on Earth did the Nuggets accomplish this on Friday night with megastar Nikola Jokić shooting 8 of 25 from the field and turning the ball over eight times?
Jokić, widely considered the best player in the world, struggled about as much as he has in any playoff game in his career, Denver’s role players came up huge. Jamal Murray scored a team-high 27 points, including scoring or assisting on 17 points in the fourth quarter and overtime. Aaron Gordon scored 22 points, and hit his third gargantuan shot of the playoffs, the game-tying 3-pointer with 27.5 seconds remaining that sent the game into overtime. Porter scored 21 points, despite barely being able to lift that shoulder, and hit a gaggle of big shots in the first half that kept the Nuggets attached on the scoreboard.
Secondly, a defense that was so maligned in the regular season has come to life in the playoffs. By the numbers, Denver had the 22nd best defense in the league, which ranked near the bottom. But once the playoffs began, the Nuggets began to defend with a healthy desperation and began to get stops in big situations. On Friday night, Denver held Oklahoma City to 1-of-7 shooting from the field in the overtime. It held Thunder MVP candidate Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to 7-of-22 shooting overall, and kept him out of the lane and forced him into multiple turnovers in the biggest moments of the game. In Wednesday night’s Game 2, the Thunder were so good in running away from Denver. In Game 3, the Nuggets, who admitted they were embarrassed by Wednesday’s performance, were much better physically at the point of attack.
“When you get hit like we got hit on Wednesday, you hit back,” Murray said. “I think we put together a good defensive performance. It comes from everyone holding each other accountable, and believing in each other and sticking together. We covered for each other pretty well.”
-Denver’s formula for winning two of the first three games of the series lies in figuring out a way to get into a close game down the stretch. The advantages Oklahoma City have in this series are obvious. The Thunder are deeper and more collectively athletic. They are super quick defensively and to the basketball. They are a healthier team, and they have a ceiling that almost no other team in the league is capable of hitting, as Game 2’s 149-106 win over the Nuggets showed.
That being said, Denver — the 2023 NBA champion — has the major advantage of having been in so many playoff battles that it knows what it is going to do if a game gets to clutch minutes. The Nuggets are going to run Murray and Jokić pick and rolls on every single possession and dare the other team to stop it. On Friday night, the Thunder, who have played very few close games this season, looked noticeably unsure of themselves in the waning possessions of the fourth quarter and in overtime. The Nuggets looked very sure of themselves, and they looked like they knew they were going to figure out a way to win the game.
“Not getting down by 60 points helped us,” Adelman said, referencing Game 2’s blowout. “It’s hard to make a run to get back into the game when you’re down by 60 points. I think the experience helps us late in games. Oklahoma City is such a difficult team to play. Who they are at their best is what Game 2 looked like. I thought we let Game 2 get away from us, but I thought we had a much more mature and professional approach to the game tonight. You could see the way we were able to calm down in the last three minutes. We knew what we wanted to do.”
In a few ways, it’s amazing that the Nuggets won this game. For so many years, the brilliance of Jokić has masked some roster flaws. On Friday night, Jokić was truly picked up by his teammates. It wasn’t the inefficient shooting. It wasn’t even the turnovers, both of which were concerning. It was how flustered Oklahoma City’s defense made him. One of his biggest strengths has always been his ability to play at his own pace, similar to LeBron James and Luka Dončić. In this series, the Thunder have consistently sped him up, and consistently made him make poor decisions.
On this night, Murray and Gordon and Porter made up for that. It was Murray’s mastery down the stretch. It was Gordon imposing his will physically in the paint on both ends of the floor. It was Porter with his shooting, and then with a clutch 3-pointer on the second possession of overtime that gave the Nuggets a 107-102 lead. It was the first time in the game where they had a multi-possession lead, and the game wouldn’t get closer after that.
It signifies that these Nuggets are a team, and not the team that looked like a bunch of individuals too many times during the regular season. This roster has come together. And though it sounds cliche, they are truly playing for one another. A month ago, the only thing Adelman asked of the group is that they began playing with joy again. A month later, they are swiftly becoming one of the best stories in the NBA.
“We know that it’s going to take everybody,” Murray said. “Defensively, we have to be on a string and we have to help each other and cover for each other. It takes a lot of communication and we are doing a great job of that.”
(Photo of Jamal Murray: Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)
