Denver turns 1-3 deficit to 4-1 victory over Utah

By Al S. Mendoza

 

DENVER was not supposed to win but it did.

Down 1-3 and precariously one game away from elimination, the Nuggets rallied mightily to score a 4-1 victory over the hard-luck Utah Jazz.

That was definitely a beautiful thriller for Denver, but absolutely a forgettable heartbreaker for Utah.

This is the ongoing NBA (National Basketball Association) playoffs that blasted off in Florida with the league’s restart on July 31 after getting knocked down by COVID-19 on March 12.

Denver’s come-from-behind conquest of Utah was one for the books.

Their best-of-seven series had all the trappings of a Hollywood blockbuster for the drama and trauma that attended it.

When Utah went up 3-1 over Denver, pundits immediately dismissed the Nuggets as history.

It is hardest in any playoffs to climb back from that deficit, especially if it’s the NBA we are talking about.

That is the world’s No. 1 basketball league, where only the best and the brightest are deemed fit to play.

One of the NBA’s certified stars is Rudy Gobert, the French seven-foot center for the Jazz.

Ironically, Gobert was the chief reason the NBA was abruptly halted in March after he became the first player to test positive for the coronavirus.

Adding to Utah’s woes was when Donovan Mitchell, the No. 1 Jazz scorer, got infected—a result of Gobert’s intentional hugging of his teammate that irked Mitchell no end.

But as fate would have it, Gobert and Mitchell would recover just as fast and Mitchell would soon accept Gobert’s apology.

Interestingly, as if by design, Gobert scored the NBA restart’s first basket before scoring Utah’s winning points via two free throws with time expiring.

In the deciding Game 7 this week, Gobert dunked for 78-all with ticks remaining.

He got hit in the eye completing that throw-down but the referees didn’t see the foul—depriving the Jazz from possibly forging to a 79-78 lead from Gobert’s probable and-one bonus.

In the next play, Nikola Jokic, the towering Serbian center, buried a hook shot for Denver’s 80-78 lead with under 17 seconds left.

Mitchell, so good at penetrations, mercifully lost the ball in traffic but Denver’s Jamal Murray, instead of freezing the ball, decided for an ill-advised fastbreak.

It almost cost the Nuggets the game—and the series—as the layup misfired.

Fortunately for Denver, Michael Conley missed a buzzer-beating three on the run from left quarter court—the rimmed-out shot not typical of Conley, whose 68-percent clip from three-point land is the highest in the playoffs.

“Sometimes, that’s just the way it works,” said a morose Mitchell, who had 22 points after firing nearly 50 points in Game 6.

A lucky guy was Murray, who was limited to only 17 points after a 50-point barrage in Game 6—his anemic performance saved by Jokic’s 30 points and 14 rebounds.

“We didn’t blow it,” said Utah coach Quin Snyder, whose boys were down 14 points at the half.  “We were dead in the water at halftime.”

“I couldn’t be more proud of my team,” said Denver coach Michael Malone.  “Our resiliency did it.”

Denver will have its acid test when it faces the Kawhi Leonard-led Los Angeles Clippers in the next round.

Hang in there.

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