Nuggets come up short despite valiant comeback effort

The Denver Nuggets were able to make the game in Minnesota a nail biter, but came up short in the end.

The Denver Nuggets came in on the back end of a back to back after defeating the Utah Jazz at the Pepsi Center. Things started out sketchy and it looked as if Denver was in for a blow out loss early on. Then, the second half happened.

Thanks to the bench of the Nuggets, Denver was able to cut like a knife through butter into the deficit and make it one point game and eventually tie which forced overtime. Thanks to a monster 23 point game from Trey Lyles and a 28 point game from Will Barton, the Denver second unit was able to make this game interesting.

On a side note, let’s all keep Jeff Teague in our thoughts who suffered a gruesome knee injury on a jump ball late in the game. Despite him being on the Timberwolves, we never want to seen someone get injured.

Jamal Murray had his fingerprints over this game as he scored 21 points and also came away with eight assists and seven rebounds. Promising numbers for the young point guard who has shifted from his normal shooting guard spot. Nikola Jokic was the fourth different Nugget to score 20 plus points in this match up.

He finished with 22 points and also had nine boards and four assists despite a less than stellar overtime period.

Gary Harris had an off night as Jimmy Butler took him to town. Butler was the hero for Minnesota as he finished with 39 points and scored 12 of Minnesota’s 14 overtime points. Harris had a rough night as he only had 10 points on 30% shooting, but still did a good job distributing the ball tallying six assists.

It was a great game for both teams, but the Nuggets just could not repeat their performance from the Utah win.

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Now, they must regroup and take what they can from this loss for their next game against the 76ers on December 30.