The Nelson Redemption: Player Grades from Denver’s Win
By Tim Hart
Veteran guard Jameer Nelson came in the clutch for Denver on Tuesday night, icing Utah’s 4th quarter comeback and securing a double-digit victory for the 8th place Nuggets.
After taking some heat for his performance against Minnesota just two days earlier, Jameer Nelson upped his game and scored 17 points on 6/8 shooting. More importantly, he scored 7 points in the final 2 minutes and 7 seconds of the game, thwarting Utah’s comeback, which narrowed a 17-point Denver lead to just 4 points late in the 4th. Nelson also added 7 assists to his box score totals, adding to Denver’s 28 team assists, an area in which they dominated the Jazz.
The Jokic effect is real. When Nikola Starts, this Denver team moves, and moves the ball. The young Serbian has jolted the Denver Nuggets with a newfound momentum that has infected his teammates. And while Jameer Nelson’s clutch performance down the stretch might have stolen the show, it did not come without another (classic?) stat-line from Jokic, who got the better of Utah’s potential all-star center Rudy Gobert, who is the NBA’s leading shot-blocker and a unanimous top-3 defensive big.
As a team, Denver shot just over 46% from the field, while also going 38.5% from three-point land and just over 74% from the line. None of these numbers stand out, nor should they. All in all, it was a mediocre night for the Nuggets, who could have seen another night of absolute fire, had they maintained the momentum that gave them a 17 point lead in the 3rd quarter. But they didn’t, and the continued struggles with closing out games may be Denver’s biggest issue moving forward. In any regard, Tuesday’s win came thanks to a few stand-out performances, and nearly slipped away thanks to a couple of duds.