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Three Takeaways From The Nuggets’ Impressive Game 2 Win Over The Clippers

The Denver Nuggets have drawn level in their series with the Los Angeles Clippers. Thanks to one of the most impressive quarters we have seen out of any team in the Orlando Bubble, the Nuggets picked up a surprising 110-101 win to make their opening round series tied at one game each.

It was a gutsy performance from Denver, which looked like it was on the road to getting swept after Game 1. They dug deep, picked up a win, and as a result, we have ourselves a series. Here are three takeaways we had after the final buzzer sounded.

The Clippers won three quarters…

…except for the first, where they got ran out of the gym. Denver looked absolutely magnificent during the game’s opening 12 minutes, boasting a 44-25 lead when the horn blared to mark the end of the frame. Jamal Murray’s 11 points stood out, but Nikola Jokic was particularly good, scoring 15 points, ripping down six rebounds, and blocking a pair of shots. He looked like a man possessed, and it did not matter whether he was being checked by Ivica Zubac or Montrezl Harrell.

As a team, Denver shot 17-for-24 during the quarter and hit seven of their 11 attempts from deep. They hit eight threes over the next three quarters. Saying that the Nuggets looked bad during Game 1 is an understatement, and they must have agreed, because teams don’t come out with this big of a chip on their shoulders unless they are trying to prove a point. Murray mentioned after the game that the team was tired in Game 1, which absolutely seemed to be the case, but that wasn’t the case on Saturday.

If Denver’s going to keep winning in this series, they’ll need these sorts of stretches where they just catch fire and everything is clicking — Jokic and Murray are both hitting shots and setting things up for those around them. They don’t need to do it over an entire quarter like this, but Mike Malone and co. would surely like it if they did. On the night, Jokic had 26 points, 18 rebounds, four assists, and three blocks while shooting 10-f0r-17 from the field and 4-for-5 from three. Murray, meanwhile, had 28 with six assists.

The Nuggets have heart

At one point in the fourth quarter, it seemed like Los Angeles had figured everything out and were just getting to the point where it could take the lead and pick up its second win in the series. With about eight and a half minutes left to go in the frame, Paul George hit a three to cut Denver’s lead to five. It did not feel fluky in any way, it seemed like the Clippers had just gotten to the point where everything clicked.

And then, the Nuggets responded. The team immediately went on a 10-0 run after that stretch, giving themselves some necessary breathing room and demoralizing the Clippers just enough that they were never quite able to get that close again. Las Angeles is a team that is really, really intense, with a star in Leonard who carries himself with a sense of inevitability that he has backed up throughout his career. When you are able to take the wind out of their sails a little bit, that says a lot about your group. Denver did that, and as a result, they won.

Two guys deserve a shout out for what they did in the game. Gary Harris, a good player who has just not been himself for the duration of the season because of injuries or general poor form, hit three threes in the quarter, played tough defense, and showed flashes of being the guy who Denver inked to a substantial deal a few years ago. And while Jerami Grant only had five points on 1-for-9 shooting, he was a menace on defense, giving the Nuggets some serious bite in the paint.

Some optimism for L.A.

If one wanted to try and spin this loss as not particularly bad for the Clippers, they would probably try to say something like this: Despite getting run off the floor in the first quarter, they won the next three and found themselves within two possessions of being able to overtake Denver in the fourth. They did this despite a really not great shooting night from top to bottom and Leonard, who is normally magnificent in the postseason, had 13 points on 4-for-17 shooting and did not hit a shot in the second half. As a team, they connected on nine of their 32 threes.

Sometimes, it is just not your night, and on Saturday, it was just not their night. While they should certainly not throw the baby out with the bathwater right now, there was one interesting thing that happened that Doc Rivers would probably be wise to consider as he maps out his rotations over the remainder of this series. Harrell, for how good he is, just is not a good matchup against Jokic. Zubac and JaMychal Green getting the lion’s share of the minutes against the All-Star center might not be the worst idea.

But of course, this was all one loss. We’ll see if this trend continues in Game 3, but regardless, in the world of postseason losses, this is certainly not one that warrants a whole bunch of overreactions.