The Denver Nuggets’ season is on the line as they face the Utah Jazz in their first of three straight elimination games.
The Denver Nuggets are one loss away from being sent home from the playoffs and again going home disappointed after another bid to capture their first NBA championship. All series long, the Nuggets have had no answer at all for Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert, two players the Nuggets drafted before trading them to the Jazz on separate draft nights.
The Nuggets didn’t manage to follow up their embarrassing 37-point loss with a series-evening win. Instead, they lost despite some lofty numbers from Jamal Murray. The Nuggets were expected to be among the handful of teams to make some real noise in the Western Conference after coming up just a play or two short in game seven of last year’s Western Conference semifinals against Portland.
Since then, they’ve added to their roster by trading for Jerami Grant, and inserting the tremendously talented Michael Porter Jr. into the rotation more and more. The Nuggets are technically at home for this game five, one of three straight elimination games they will have to survive in order to keep their season alive.
Jamal Murray will likely need to have another scintillating performance like he had in game one and game four, where he twice matched the scorching hot Mitchell stride-for-stride. He scored 36 points in game one and added a whopping 50 in game four. The Nuggets came shockingly close to actually getting swept altogether by the Jazz, who have been without Bojan Bogdanovic throughout the bubble.
The Nuggets will have to get a better performance out of Paul Millsap and Nikola Jokic, two players who have been more or less sleepwalking through this series. The Nuggets have a great all around roster, even without Gary Harris and Will Barton, and it’s time they play up to their strengths and their opponents.
Game 5 tips at 6:30 ET.