The Nuggets had already clinched an eighth consecutive playoff berth by the time they tipped off Wednesday in Utah, thanks to Phoenix’s latest loss. That means the results from now on are all about seeding in the Western Conference bracket, where they’ll finish somewhere between third and sixth.
They remained in fourth with a 130-117 triumph over the Jazz, matching a season-best win streak with their seventh in a row. Denver (49-28) also has five chances now to secure its fourth consecutive 50-win season, starting with Saturday’s matinee against Victor Wembanyama’s Spurs.
Murray adds another All-NBA performance
Jamal Murray’s dazzling season as a shooter could be summed up by the eagerness with which he sought out his 3-pointer early. He started the game on a 9-0 solo run, eventually scoring 15 of his 37 points during the first quarter, entirely on 3s. The exclamation point was a half-court buzzer beater to end the frame, his third of the season (prefaced by a travel that he got away with).
That aggressiveness nullified Nikola Jokic’s disinterest in looking to score for most of the night. The three-time MVP finished with a triple-double, but only after attempting just two shots in the first half.
Murray’s 10-for-16 performance outside the arc improved his efficiency to 43.4% for the season, leapfrogging Kon Knueppel for seventh in the NBA. Nobody in the league has a better percentage on more attempts. Murray also has 13 games this season with 35 or more points after the win in Utah.
Injuries and adjustments
Spencer Jones was out with a hamstring injury in Salt Lake City, so Denver went back to Jonas Valanciunas at backup center. The Lithuanian big man took advantage of the opportunity with a strong outing. The Nuggets tried with more conviction to feed him on the block and play out of his post-ups. He went for 13 points and seven rebounds in 13 minutes, earning eight trips to the line. Denver played a lot of zone at the other end, mostly to good effect. Valanciunas finished a plus-eight. The team’s worst defensive stretch came in the third quarter (with Jokic at center), when the Jazz got downhill easily against a man-to-man scheme.
Peyton Watson was supposed to increase his minutes after lingering around 20 recently, but he left the game in the second quarter when tightness resurfaced in his right hamstring. His night ended at nine minutes instead.
In the same quarter, Jazz wing Ace Bailey ran into Tim Hardaway Jr.’s left knee while landing from a dunk attempt. Hardaway was initially able to shake it off and stay in the game, but he was eventually ruled out with knee soreness. David Adelman turned to Julian Strawther for second-half reinforcements.
About that seeding
According to Basketball Reference, the Nuggets have more than an 85% probability of finishing as either the No. 4 or No. 5 seed in the West. They’ve been taking care of business against a weak schedule recently, but so have the third-place Lakers, who possess the head-to-head tiebreaker over Denver. If there’s going to be a push for No. 3, the Nuggets will need help.
In the more likely case that they’re solidified as either fourth or fifth place by the last weekend of the season, Adelman will have decisions to make about who plays and who doesn’t. No. 4 and No. 5 face each other in the first round of the playoffs, so the only difference between them is which team gets to start and finish the series at home. Houston and Minnesota are the teams trying to catch Denver.
“I think all those teams are very aware they can win on the other teams’ home court. But I would say the advantage of having the first game be at home, to me, is it stays in your routine,” Adelman said Tuesday. “You have a week to prepare, and those first two games, you’re at home for maybe up to 10 days (in a row). So I think that is an advantage, as opposed to starting that tournament in a hotel room. It’s different. … But as it showed last year, we have the crazy game against the Clippers where Aaron dunks the ball (in Los Angeles); Kawhi has a monumental night against us in Game 2 (in Denver).
“But it did come down to Game 7 here. We got it done here. And OKC, they took advantage of what they had, what they earned during the season. So rather be a four, but fully confident that as a five-seed, we’d be fine.”
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