Torrey Craig: The Difference Maker for the Denver Nuggets

Coming into the Denver Nuggets game 4 showdown Saturday the Nuggets looked deflated and lacking answers for the Spurs role-players but faced their own problems on the offensive end of the floor with players like Will Barton getting heavy minutes and posting poor performances night after night.

Coming into game four, the Denver Nuggets season was on the line, with a loss the Nuggets would  be down 3-1 in the series with a game remaining in San Antonio for the Spurs to capitalize on. Will Barton was clearly not the answer the Nuggets needed through three games and the Nuggets needed a change, enter Torrey Craig, who through three games had also looked unimpressive albeit with very limited minutes.

To start the game Nuggets coach Mike Malone started the line up of Paul Millsap, Craig, Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray and Garry Harris. Early in the game the defense was shaky with the Nuggets giving up 34 points in the quarter with the Spurs shooting a red-hot 10 of 16 from the field and 3 of 4 from behind the arc. The Nuggets however looked promising early mostly because of the shots they were making early as one of the central problems the Nuggets have shown this series is an inability to make wide open or even lightly contested buckets that they were making routinely earlier in the season.

The Nuggets closed the first half on an 11-2 run before a late LaMarcus Aldridge hook shot tied the game at 54, but the Nuggets defense held strong in the second quarter holding the spurs to just two field goal makes in the quarter while the Nuggets shot 11 of 26 in the quarter including five three pointers.

In the third quarter the Nuggets took clear control of the game and never looked back opening up a lead as high as 14 in the third quarter from key makes from Murray and Harris as well and others, The Nuggets shot 11 of 17 and controlled the Spurs on the defensive end holding the Spurs to just 8 buckets in the third all within the paint while also limiting the Spurs to just one three-point attempt the whole quarter. In the fourth the Nuggets continued to pull away going up by as many as 19 with five minutes remaining after Demar Derozan was ejected for throwing the ball out-of-bounds in frustration with a foul call from a ref.

The Nuggets closed out the game 117-103 to draw the series even at 2-2 with three games remaining and the Nuggets retaining home court advantage for game 7 in Denver if necessary.

Torrey Craig shined for the Nuggets going from coming off the bench and posting mediocre numbers to playing 37 minutes in a do-or-die playoff game Craig scored 18 points on a hyper efficient 6 of 7 shooting including an astounding 5 of 7 from behind the arc. The Spurs as a team meanwhile shot 5 of 17 from behind the arc.

While Craig’s ability to make shots was certainly needed for the Nuggets to win this game the quality that shined the most was Craig’s defense being able to guard DeRozan, Rudy Gay, and Jarred White and forcing them into tough contested shots all night.

With the series returning back to Denver for both games five and seven the Nuggets are in firm control of their playoff lives and could even close out the series in six games if they win the next two games one in Denver then next in San Antonio, but if all else fails the Nuggets still have claim to the best regular season home record in the association as well as San Antonio’s dismal 16-25 record on the road this season.