Disastrous last-second decision-making dooms Nuggets in loss to Wizards
Feb 26, 2021, 6:49 AM
Like the team leader he is, Jamal Murray took the blame for the Nuggets’ loss to the Wizards, but he only deserved some of it. Following the game, Murray, who led all scorers with 34 points, was regretting not finishing with just a couple more.
In the final half-dozen seconds of the game, Nikola Jokic deftly tapped a rebound to Murray, who streaked down the court with three teammates in tow, looking to tie the game at 112 and send it to overtime. With three seconds left, Murray picked up his dribble at the three-point line, looking for his seventh assist of the night, and he had options: Michael Porter Jr, Monte Morris and Facu Campazzo were all wide-open on the left side of the court with no one between any of them and the hoop — and then none of them moved.
“Come on, guys. Lock in! We’re playing basketball. We’re 4-on-1, somebody should go to the rim,” a clearly frustrated Murray explained after the game. “I thought Michael was going to the rim. He might have thought I was shooting it — and I should have shot it. I gave Facu a really bad pass… I basically rolled the ball to him. And I didn’t run the clock, either.”
Rushed, Murray indeed sent a clumsy pass to Campazzo, whose would-be game-winner bounced off the front of the rim, sending the Nuggets to their strangest loss of the season.
“If I stop for the three, I’ve got to shoot it,” Murray continued. “And if Mike’s running the lane, he’s got to go to the rim, especially when there’s other guys behind him. So, I guess it’s just a tough play where we didn’t know what we were doing. We’ve just got to score.”
Porter Jr. explained why he went to the corner for the three, and under normal circumstances, that might have been the right choice. However, this situation wasn’t normal, and the hyper-athletic 22-year-old should have realized that he had an easy layup or dunk and streaked to the hoop, something that wasn’t lost on head coach Michael Malone.
“All Michael Porter’s got to do is cut to the basket. All Jamal Murray has to do is push the ball and attack,” an exasperated Malone lamented.
Porter Jr., on the whole, performed well in this game, scoring 18 points and collecting 10 rebounds, and he’s noticeably stepped up his play in February, but Thursday’s mental mistake illustrated how much he still has to learn. The lesson was harder than usual.
“There should’ve definitely been a cut to the rim,” he admitted.
With little left to do about it after the loss, Murray tried to ensure that his teammates didn’t beat themselves up too much.
“We just were all messed up. It was just a broken play. Sometimes, broken plays, you can’t fix on the fly. And you don’t always make the best decisions.”
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NEXT UP: Nuggets (17-15) vs. Thunder (13-19) | Saturday, Feb. 27 at 6:00 p.m.
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TEAM NOTES
• The Nuggets are a disappointing 5-7 in the month of February with only one game left to play. The last time the Nuggets finished under .500 in a full, calendar month was in December of 2017, when they went 7-8.
• Denver was ice-cold from the field to start the game, shooting 4-for-17 (23.5 percent), but it wasn’t Nikola Jokic’s fault. Jokic shot 4-for-5 (80.0 percent), whereas the rest of the team was a miserable 1-for-12 (8.3 percent).
• After setting a new NBA record on Tuesday with one turnover, the Nuggets handed it over 18 times on Thursday, allowing the Wizards 23 points off of them in Denver’s two-point loss.
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PLAYER NOTES
• Jamal Murray scored 34 points to lead the Nuggets on Thursday, but following the discombobulated, final offensive series that ended up costing them the game, Murray made the following post to his Twitter account: “My fault Nuggets nation.. on to the next one.. STICK WITH US!!”
• Will Barton had a night to forget Thursday. Barton scored only two points on the night on 1-for-7 shooting, and only contributed four rebounds and one assist. He turned the ball over three times and had three personal fouls in only 22 minutes on the court.
• Vlatko Cancar played 10 minutes in Thursday’s loss; the most minutes he’s had all season, and the second-most in his career. Cancar played 17 minutes in February of 2020 in a win over Utah.
• Greg Whittington returned to the team for the first time since he underwent arthroscopic surgery on his left knee on Jan. 19. Whittington did not play in Thursday’s loss, however.
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THE FINAL WORD
“I just should have shot it. It’s a 4-on-1. We’ve got to score.” — Jamal Murray, on the Nuggets’ confounding, final play.
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INJURY WATCH
• Gary Harris (left adductor strain) sat out the Feb. 21 game and is expected to miss more time.
• JaMychal Green (left shoulder sprain/contusion) being injured on Feb. 19. He is considered day-to-day.
• Paul Millsap (left knee sprain) didn’t return after halftime on Feb. 14. He is day-to-day.
• P.J. Dozier (right hamstring strain) has been out since Jan. 26. He is day-to-day.
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ROTATION (MINUTES)
Starters:
G Jamal Murray (42)
G Monte Morris (31)
F-G Will Barton (22)
F Michael Porter Jr. (41)
C Nikola Jokic (38)
Bench:
G Facundo Campazzo (32)
F Zeke Nnaji (15)
F Vlatko Cancar (10)
C-F Isaiah Hartenstein (10)
C-F Bol Bol (DNP-CD)
G R.J. Hampton (DNP-CD)
G Markus Howard (DNP-CD)
F Greg Whittington (DNP-CD)
