Whistles, bounces and misses: Nuggets Game 3 comeback falls short

The Denver Nuggets will not repay the Suns with a sweep two years after the Suns took the Nuggets in four en route to an NBA Finals appearance.

For a night, the Suns were able to hold off the Nuggets 121-114 to take Game 3 and push half Denver’s series lead to 2-1.

Devin Booker came out firing in the first quarter and kept it up throughout the game, hitting 20-of-25 shots to score 47 points.

“Our defense on Devin Booker was unacceptable,” Michael Malone said. “We let him walk into pull-up threes. We gotta be a hell of a lot better”

Kevin Durant added 39 points but was sparked in the second quarter by a parade to the free-throw line.

“You can not give that team any easy points, turnovers, offensive glass, or foul line,” Malone said.

The two were just the second pair to each tally 39 or more points and eight more assists in an NBA game. The first occurrence also was against the Nuggets, when Detroit played the highest-scoring game in NBA history against Denver.

The two were historically good. So too was Nikola Jokic. The Joker’s 28 points, 17 rebounds and 17 assists marked the first game in NBA postseason history a player hit those marks. He played 42 minutes and Denver was +7 when he played, compared to a wild -14 in the six minutes Jokic sat.

It was the first time in the playoffs the Nuggets were outscored in the fourth, the first time Denver lost when winning the battle of the boards and the first time against the Suns where the bench was outplayed.

For a hoops game won in the margins, the bench was resoundingly bad. The shots didn’t fall at a rate high enough to cover up for the mistakes. The Nuggets went 44% from the field and 10-of-30 from deep. There were plenty of open misses and Jamal Murray is just 1-of-his-last 15 from three over the last two games. Neither Aaron Gordon nor Kentavious Caldwell-Pope cashed from the arc, while Michael Porter Jr. was the lone Nugget to hit more than once from downtown.

Even with all that the Nuggets almost had enough to beat the Suns when Booker and Durant gave the Suns everything they had.

The duo was helped slightly by their now deeper cast without Chris Paul but didn’t really get all that much outside of Jock Landale. The real help came from the referees.

The Suns lone first-quarter free throw came off the rarely-called three in the key on Jokic. Durant. It was just one of two times Durant scored in the first period. And then to start the second the Nuggets were called for five fouls in the first 2 minutes and 35 seconds of the quarter, putting Phoenix into the bonus.

The Suns sped to a 38-21 quarter, behind 11 free throws from KD. The Nuggets were penalized for attempting to play defense.

Later the refs swallowed their whistles and gave a controversial review the way of the Suns when Booker could’ve picked up his fifth foul, a few times.

The Nuggets took advantage of an early bonus in the third for a 36-23 quarter that eventually gave Denver a lead, erasing double digits from the home team. But Murray and the rest of the Nuggets ran out of gas.

“He was really trying to carry the team tonight,” Malone said of Murray’s 32 points. “He’s garnering so much attention out there, and I think when we watch the film he’ll be able to see it. He’s doing his job. He’s got two defenders on him at times, and that’s where he’s just got to trust his teammates and maybe get off that ball. I think a huge part of their game plan is to somehow, some way slow down Jamal Murray and force him into tough shots.”

So to recap, Murray fell apart late and dribbled the air out of the ball at times. Denver gave up 86 to the Suns two stars. The Nuggets were on the bad end of whistles and committed some really stupid fouls… and yet the Suns only won by seven.

Even in a loss, the Nuggets showed just how hard this is going to be for the Suns. Sure it looked worse for Denver in Game 3 than in 1 and 2, but that’s life on the road.

“We expected to win, this is on me—I can’t miss that much,” Murray said. “They had a great game, we can’t let them get into a rhythm for a whole game but we had a chance late and I put that on me.”

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