We Watched It So You Didn’t Have To

Denver Nuggets Survive a Thriller in Portland

Late Gary Harris shooting outlasts a big C.J. McCollum game. Here’s what it means for two key West contenders

The Denver Nuggets outlasted the Portland Trail Blazers Friday night in a key clash of West contenders. Denver opened up a big lead early and led by 10 or 15 much of the way before the Blazers clawed back late behind a monster C.J. McCollum fourth quarter. But Gary Harris capped a big game with a winning three late, and McCollum’s potential game winner went missing at the buzzer as the Nuggets survived a thriller to win 113 to 112.

This one was on ESPN and was one of the games of the week, so perhaps you watched it — but it was late and on a Friday night and you’ve got Christmas parties and can’t watch every game. That’s why I watched this one so you didn’t have to and wrote about a few takeaways in a game that featured two star shooting guards and one really fun, modern offense. Every game is a data point, and this was an especially sizable one. Let’s take a look at the notes…

Denver’s offense is a whirring beauty of modern offensive fluidity when things are running properly

If you haven’t watched much Denver basketball this year, you probably have this team backwards. You probably think this is a high-flying offense that runs all game and tries to outrace opponents with a defense that can’t do its part. But Denver has been the exact opposite. They play at a bottom five pace, and the offense has struggled to click consistently as Nuggets shooters haven’t found their rhythm. Denver has a top-10 offense, but it’s their #4-rated defense carrying the team near atop the West standings so far.

But Friday night was the Denver you’ve imagined all along.

The Nuggets offense was a thing of beauty in the first half when all the gears got aligned. Denver’s offense is so fluid. Several times I caught myself wondering if I was watching the 2014 Spurs the way the ball was moving from player to player amidst constant player movement.

The Nuggets ooze team chemistry. They’re having fun out there, the sort of thing that happens when you build your attack around someone like Nikola Jokic. Jokic gets everyone involved. He sees every passing angle and his teammates know they can get the ball anywhere anytime. That means they’re always looking, always cutting. There’s almost always an off-ball cutter, which means every defender has to keep thinking at all times. It’s fun to watch, unless you’re the defense, in which case it has to be exhausting mentally.

Denver’s starting five plays positionless offense because their players have so much versatility. Everyone in the starting five can shoot. That spaces the floor from any angle. All five can pass, too. You know about Jokic, but Paul Millsap has always been a nice passer, Gary Harris is averaging a career high in assists, and Juancho Hernangomez moves the ball along. The passing is so fun it almost feels like Denver is having a nightly contest to see which guy can get the best highlight-reel assist.

The ball is juiced in the Nuggets offense. It hops from one player to the next, and it just looks like a team that enjoys playing together. Nobody cares who gets the shot because everyone knows they’ll get theirs. Sharing means caring. Paul Millsap and Mason Plumlee can dribble and pass, and each led a fast breaks. Trey Lyles can dribble. Juancho can do a bit of everything. Harris and Jamal Murray can get to the rim and finish. Everyone on Denver can do everything, and it makes the offense impossible to defend when it’s whirring.

Contrast that with the Portland offense, which just feels slower. Damian Lillard and McCollum are great, and both have improved as passers, but the natural instinct for each is still trying to create their own shot. Compare a rounded Nuggets roster to a top-heavy Blazers team where there just isn’t much outside of the top two guys. Dame wasn’t hitting shots Friday and that left C.J. to do all the heavy lifting because no one else can create much. Portland’s offense feels slow and predictable. Denver’s offense is always changing. It’s always a new set, always a new handler. Harris and Millsap almost feel underutilized for Denver, scoring 49 points Friday almost entirely within the flow of the offense.

Denver hasn’t been shooting well, making a below-league-average 35% of their threes. That wasn’t the case Friday when they hit 47% from deep, including nine threes in a first-half avalanche. The Nuggets have good shooters, so those shots will fall eventually, and the league better watch out when they do.

My buddy Jonny described the Nuggets as the 2000s Pistons, but on offense. It’s a jarring description at first, but I think it works — five guys that aren’t quite superstars (Jokic perhaps withstanding), but five that work together and are greater than the sum of their parts. You may not look at the Nuggets roster and get super excited by any one player offensively, but the symphony they create together is fantastic. They make each other better.

But does a Pistons model work on offense? The second half offense was not so pretty for Denver, and the team struggled to find points late. Five together works on defense, where all five guys are needed to form a cohesive unit. On offense, even in the modern NBA, it often comes down to the best man with the game on the line. Does Denver have that best man? Jamal Murray has had moments but didn’t have it this game, and Harris struggled to create. Could that be the role for someone like Isaiah Thomas or Will Barton?

Who will take the game-winning shot for Denver with everything on the line?

With a tie game in the final minute, Jokic got the ball at the top of the arc and sidestepped a defender, giving himself an open three. Instead he dribbled and stepped into an open look at the nail — and then passed to an open Gary Harris in the corner when he saw Evan Turner cheating toward him, as Harris calmly canned the corner three for what turned out to be the game winner.

So who will take the final shot for Denver? How about whatever open player the juiced ball finds? Seems to work just fine on every other possession.

C.J. McCollum got buckets, but Gary Harris may be the better all around two guard

C.J. McCollum was so good, especially late. Lillard never got going and didn’t score a single fourth-quarter field goal, so McCollum took over, putting up 15 points in the final quarter to finish with 33. He went 0-for-4 from downtown but was a scorching 14-for-17 on twos, repeatedly beating his defender and hitting another pull-up or floater or getting to the rim.

McCollum has improved on twos. He’s taking more shots at the rim and fewer long twos, and perhaps that discretion is leading to a better efficiency. From 10 feet to the arc, McCollum is making 57% of his looks, way up from 46% in his career. C.J. has always been a sharpshooter behind the arc, but he’s getting more efficient inside it as a scorer. His dribble is improved, and Denver had no answer to his attack late.

Still, for all McCollum’s improvements, I couldn’t help thinking Gary Harris was the better player. Harris is a better playmaker within a team construct. While McCollum’s assists have declined three straight seasons to just 2.3 per game, Harris is at a career high. While McCollum is up to a career-best 52% on twos, Harris has been over 54% each of the past three seasons. Harris is averaging career highs in rebounding, assisting, and scoring. He’s also three years younger than McCollum, so he’ll probably still get better.

Harris is so good in this Denver offense, and he has next level rapport with Jokic. This was his first game back after missing a couple games with an ankle injury, and injuries have plagued Harris throughout his career. He never seems to stay fully healthy for more than a month or two at a time, and perhaps that’s why his shooting numbers have been a bit down this season.

As an offensive player, Harris reminds me of a great NFL possession receiver, someone like Adam Thielen (cross-sport cross-race athlete comp!). Like a smart receiver, he reads the defense and finds holes in the zone and sits, waiting for his quarterback Jokic to get him the ball. Harris has such a good intuition for the game. So many of his shots end up being good looks because he’s constantly putting himself in position to get them and letting his teammates find him there. You know how ESPN has that nifty new graphic where it shows all five players’ presumed shooting percentage as a play develops? Harris is constantly in flashing green get-me-the-ball range. He plays smarter, not harder.

Harris is also a good defender. He has solid size for a two with a nice wingspan, and though I loathe the term, he’s become one of the best “two-way” shooting guards in the league the way he battles at both ends. Though he didn’t have an answer for McCollum in the fourth quarter — no one on Denver did — he bothered Lillard all game.

Harris defends, rebounds, passes, shoots, and handles. He does a bit of everything, and at age 24, he’s still scratching the surface. Late in the game when the Nuggets offense stalled, Harris got more aggressive and attacked on offense. That led to some lesser efficiency as Harris finished 9-for-21 shooting, but it also gave Denver just enough scoring as Harris led the team with 27 points and the game-winning three.

Remember the 2014 draft? The Chicago Bulls do. They traded the #16 and #19 picks to move up for Doug McDermott. McDermott’s on his fifth team. Those two picks became Gary Harris and Jusuf Nurkic, who you might remember used to play for Denver. The Nuggets used their second-rounder on Nikola Jokic that year. Not a bad draft haul. Jokic is the second best player from the 2014 draft, after Joel Embiid. Is Gary Harris third? He might be.

I’m not sure there are more than five shooting guards in the NBA I’d trade Gary Harris for, and I don’t think C.J. McCollum is one of them. He’s a key cog that helps keep this Denver offense humming, and he does a bit of everything for the Nuggets.

10 other parting shots…

1. The presumed Lillard-Murray point guard showdown fizzled

Neither Dame nor Murray had it. Murray had a poor game, shooting 2-for-13 with a key turnover in the final seconds that nearly cost Denver the game. Lillard was better, with 15 and 8, but he never got it going. Still, you sense Dame lurking all game. It felt like he was playing in mud but you could almost feel him slowly shaking loose as the game wore on, and when he hit a huge deep three to end the third quarter it felt like he might take the game over late. It didn’t happen, but that’s the power of Dame.

2. A quiet night for Jokic, but his fingerprints were still everywhere

Jokic is a strange superstar. We’re used to our stars taking 20 shots and dominating touches. Jokic doesn’t touch the ball every play, but his fingerprints are all over the game. Jokic is the quarterback of the offense. He’s like Peyton Manning reading and analyzing the D, waving guys into motion, and finding them in space. The way a great defensive center directs everyone into place, Jokic orchestrates the Denver offense. His teammates know they can get the ball any time, and that enlivens their cuts and means they’re always willing to work for him. Jokic’s passing has juiced the entire offense. He’s the engine that makes the team go, and his passing has rubbed off on teammates like Plumlee and Harris. It felt like a quieter night from Jokic, who never seems to look for his own offense, but he still finished with a tidy 15–6–8 line. We should all be so quiet.

3. Paul Millsap is back to doing Paul Millsap things

Last year was a lost season for Millsap as he struggled through injury, but it feels like he’s found his place on this year’s Nuggets. He’s back to doing all the Millsappy things that made him so good for Atlanta and Utah. Millsap had an efficient 22 points plus 10 boards, 4 assists, and 4 steals. He plays tough, smart defense, moves the ball on offense, and takes what’s there. As a Minnesota fan, I can’t help but wonder what if the Wolves had signed Millsap last summer instead of Jeff Teague and Taj Gibson. Maybe Paul Millsap just needed a year away from our collective conscience so he could go back to being one of the most underrated players in the league again.

4. Al-Farouq Aminu kept Portland in the game

Aminu is the perfect complimentary player next to Dame and C.J. He does all the little things, the sort of guy you don’t really notice until he’s gone (like Trevor Ariza). He elevated his offense against the Nuggets. Aminu was aggressive, attacking smaller defenders and scoring off the dribble, even adding a Euro step I didn’t know he had. He finished with a season-high 20 points on just nine shots and really impressed.

5. Only one of these teams has a fifth starter

I really like what Juancho Hernangomez gives Denver as the fifth guy. He can shoot well at 46% from deep, and he can dribble and pass. Most importantly, he knows he’s the fifth guy. He’s a “3-and” player, not exactly a strong defender, but he does the things this team needs on offense. He scored nine first-quarter points and helped Denver jump out to a big lead. Contrast that with Portland, who can’t seem to find a fifth guy. Moe Harkless started but played only 14 minutes. I took one note about him all game and my phone autocorrected his name to Harmless. Seems appropriate. Evan Turner replaced him in the closing lineup but wasn’t particularly impactful. Last season the fifth closer was Shabazz Napier. Portland still can’t find the right guys to play around Dame and C.J. and it continues to hurt them.

6. Both teams’ bench units are lacking

Portland has some nice bench options, but why are they ever playing minutes with both Dame and C.J. on the bench? There’s no good reason. Monte Morris and Mason Plumlee were terrific for Denver, but their bench lacks punch. There’s no one that can really change the game. But that’s when you remember this team still hasn’t gotten anything from Barton or Thomas. Is there still a role for IT with Morris’s breakout? We’ll see. Barton may need to go back to his role juicing this second team once he gets healthy. And don’t forgot Michael Porter Jr. long term as an option.

7. Monte Morris, efficiency king

Denver got killed last season by terrible backup PG play, but Monte Morris looks like the answer. Morris is quite a success story. He battled his way to the NBA through the G-League, and remember, the Nuggets don’t even have a G-League affiliate. Morris played for Houston’s team but found his way to Denver anyway, and he’s balling out. Morris was terrific against Portland, scoring 16 points on eight shots, and he remains the king of efficiency. Morris never turned the ball over at Iowa State, averaging a turnover every 29 minutes as a college point guard. In Denver, he’s somehow cut that even further, turning it over just once every 44 minutes. That’s astounding for a rookie point guard. An efficient scorer that runs the offense and doesn’t turn it over? You can’t ask for much more from a backup point guard.

8. I still prefer Zach Collins to Jusuf Nurkic

I’ve never loved Nurkic. He can clearly score in the post, but he’s a ball stopper on offense and his post touches are inefficient. Collins seems to play in the flow of the game better, and I love his interior passing ability. He’s a better athlete and just fits Portland better, especially if they’re not playing good defense around Nurkic anyway.

9. Denver’s defensive transformation might still need some work

Denver reminds me a bit of Portland last year. I know the offense will improve, but I’m not sure I buy the defense yet. The one thing Denver did best Friday was limit quality three point attempts. Portland shot 6-for-22 from deep, and the second number is as impressive as the first. The Blazers just weren’t getting decent looks from deep. Denver leads the league with 31% threes allowed, but history tells us that will regress to the mean. Denver’s allowing the 13th most 3PA per game, around league average. Those shots will fall eventually. The Nuggets still need to learn how to defend everything else. Dame and C.J. beat them constantly off the dribble, and Denver allowed 62% shooting inside the arc. It still feels like a slick offense like Houston could kill this defense with sharp pick-and-roll play and easy twos. I need to see more.

10. Doris Burke is the GOAT

There’s no one I’d rather hear on the mic than Doris, and she was rocking a #SagerStrong blazer too. Every NBA game is better with Doris Burke, and all the more when she’s on the call instead of stashed on the sidelines. Shouts to Mike Malone too, whose Sager blazer was off-the-charts awesome.

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