Jamal Murray was nominated for Clutch Player of the Year. Nikola Jokic is the best basketball player in the world and a three-time MVP. They form the best two-man game in the league, and one of the best of all time. The Nuggets had just won 13 in a row, including a clutch win, their 7th during the stretch, in Game 1 of the first round of the playoffs against the Minnesota Timberwolves to take a 1-0 series lead.
They didn't look like any of those things in the waning moments of their 119-114 clutch defeat to the Timberwolves. The series is now tied, 1-1. The Nuggets seemed to forget who they were mere days and weeks ago. Jamal Murray made a head-scratching decision late, and so did Joker. And they didn't get any help from their friends, either.
Christian Braun had a chance to tie the game with two free throws with 19 seconds to go after receiving a questionable pass from Jokic. More on that in a moment. And then Braun clanked the rim on his first one. You could sense it was coming. The second one was good, but making two wasn't in the cards, of course.
Jokic and Murray made a mess of the clutch
It wasn't the finest hour, er, final five minutes, or even fourth quarter for Denver's dynamic duo. For whatever reason, they didn't show up. Jokic and Murray combined for just two points over the final five minutes, and just four in the fourth quarter. Jokic shot just 1-5 over the final five minutes, the lone make a "poster" dunk on Rudy Gobert. Murray was 0-4.
If that wasn't uncharacteristic enough, Jokic passed up a floater he could have lifted over Gobert with 19 seconds left. Instead, he passed it to Braun under the rim, and he got fouled and couldn't capitalize on the free throws.
Murray wasn't immune to questionable decisions either. The Clutch Player of the Year nominee hoisted up a contested two with about 10 seconds to go, down three. He said after the game that if he made the shot, the Nuggets still had a timeout. But he missed. You would still probably want the franchise record holder for made threes in a season to attempt a decent look at the tie instead of the onside kick level of things that need to go right down one with 10 seconds left.
Overall, it was tough to watch the Nuggets crumble in a spot we've seen them dominate for years. They had clutch problems in February, going 1-6 in clutch games, but the recent 7-0 run in clutch games had made you think that issue was behind them. Apparently not.
The winning streak had to come to an end at some point. But it didn't have to in Game 2. The game was there for the Nuggets, but collectively, it was just a bad clutch loss.
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