Jamal Murray scores 20 after being questionable, Nuggets pull away from Clippers in make-up game

A game that wasn’t on the schedule two weeks ago could maybe — just maybe — end up being one of the most impactful results of the Nuggets’ season.

After getting eliminated from the NBA Cup in the group stage, they needed to be scheduled for two make-up games in December. One of those was Friday night’s 120-98 win over the Clippers at Ball Arena.

The original 2024-25 NBA calendar featured three matchups between the Nuggets and Clippers — two of them at altitude. The first two meetings were already losses for Denver, meaning Los Angeles had clinched a hypothetical tiebreaker in the standings. Until this new development. Now, the Nuggets (13-10) have a chance to escape the season series with a 2-2 tie despite a skewed home-court advantage in the four matchups.

“The league gave us a gift,” coach Michael Malone acknowledged before the game. “It’s up to us if we want to take advantage of that gift.”

Denver did, with a dominant second half. Jamal Murray led the team with 20 points after missing the last two games with a hamstring injury. Michael Porter Jr. scored 12 of 17 in the last eight minutes of the third quarter, while Denver was building a 14-point lead. And Nikola Jokic didn’t have to play in the fourth, thanks to a jolt of scoring from Peyton Watson and Julian Strawther and defense from Russell Westbrook. The MVP center followed his 104-point back-to-back with 16 points, seven rebounds and two assists.

He played just shy of 30 minutes.

James Harden and Norman Powell, who eviscerated Denver in the last two matchups, combined for 31 points on 28 shots. Denver forced 19 turnovers to cancel out 21 giveaways at the offensive end.

Playing their only home game in a 19-day stretch, the Nuggets logged consecutive wins for the first time in more than a month. They are 8-0 this season when they lead after the first quarter.

They also won the first half for only the sixth time in 23 games this season, but the way they pulled it off was about as peculiar as they could’ve drawn it up. They committed 14 turnovers, giving Los Angeles 18 points, shot 3-for-15 from beyond the arc and had zero double-digit scorers at the break. They surrendered an 18-0 run in the middle of the second quarter, going 4 minutes, 54 seconds without a point and 5:32 without a field goal.

Even weirder: Most of that drought occurred with Jokic on the floor. He attempted only four shots in the half, and one of them was determined by his computer programming. On a sideline out of bounds play with 31 seconds left, he caught at the top of the key and immediately released, trying to engineer two possessions out of the situation. He made the three, then the Clippers coughed it up to give Christian Braun an easy dunk. Mission accomplished. The 5-0 burst was enough for a 48-47 lead.

Jokic’s six rest minutes almost added to the backwardness of the half. Almost. With Murray staggering and Westbrook lobbing to DeAndre Jordan, the Nuggets in control for the majority of the stint, until the last 45 seconds. The Clippers hadn’t taken advantage of Denver’s turnovers yet — but they did just in time. With their own 5-0 mini-run, the non-Jokic minutes ended in a tie. Alas, man’s search for meaning continued. There might have been a breakthrough in the fourth quarter.

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