It took some drastic changes to get to this point, but the Nuggets, as they close out the season, are reclaiming at least one thing they lost along the way — the right to believe again there are teams they’re supposed to beat.
Winning the winnable games has been a constant under interim coach Melvin Hunt. The Nuggets are 5-2 against teams under .500 since he took over, and that includes Friday’s 107-91 victory over the Utah Jazz at the Pepsi Center.
“That was good,” Hunt said. “I enjoyed that one.”
The game was almost everything the Nuggets had hoped to be Wednesday, when their legs failed them in a loss to the Philadelphia 76ers. There were no such issues against Utah.
The Nuggets started the game with energy and generally kept it throughout. They never trailed and led by as many as 19. Pace was in the game, and the fast-break points (22) reflected that.
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While Utah isn’t afraid of an up-tempo game and doesn’t fret over games played at altitude, the Nuggets were able to keep the game chaotic enough to succeed.
Point guard Ty Lawson turned in his best performance in quite some time with 18 points and nine assists. But it wasn’t the easy-to-see production stats that told the story. It was the eye test that let you know he was fully engaged.
“I keep hearing this stuff about ‘he’s in a slump.’ The kid is playing some of the best basketball I’ve seen him play,” Hunt said. “He set the tone. He set the table for us.”
Lawson sprinted up court with the ball, constantly probed the Utah defense in half-court situations, created open lanes for teammates when there were previously none, and was aggressive offensively, taking the ball strong to the rim and not settling for kick-out passes at the first sign of resistance.
“I was just being more aggressive,” Lawson said. “I felt like the whole season I was being a little bit passive, looking for the assist more than my shot. Today, when I started hitting shots, the assists opened up.”
And with Lawson in total control of matters, the Nuggets thrived.
It allowed them to survive big efforts from Utah’s Gordon Hayward (24 points) and Rudy Gobert (14 points, 14 rebounds). Outside of those two, however, not much else was happening for the Jazz, which lost its fourth consecutive game.
For the Nuggets, it was their second win in three games. For Hunt, it improved his record to 8-6 at the helm. He needs four more wins to ensure a winning record in the 23 games he will have coached by the end of the season.
Jameer Nelson added 18 points off the bench, nailing 4-of-5 shots from the 3-point line, which helped the Nuggets go 13-of-24. They outscored Utah 39-15 from 3-point range.
The Nuggets play the second of a back-to-back set Saturday at Portland.
“They’ve kind of been handing us losses this year,” Kenneth Faried said of Portland. “But we’re a different team than the three times we’ve played them.”
Christopher Dempsey: cdempsey@denverpost.com or
DENVER AT PORTLAND 8 p.m. Saturday, ALT; 94.1 FM
Spotlight on Arron Afflalo: A little more than a month ago, Arron Afflalo was still a Nugget. His name was constantly in trade rumors, but he was still a Nugget. But then those rumors turned out to be true, and he was dealt to the Trail Blazers, along with Alonzo Gee, at the trade deadline. He was acquired for depth off Portland’s bench, but since then Afflalo has been pressed into starting action because of a season-ending injury to the normal starter at shooting guard, Wesley Matthews. This is the first and only matchup Afflalo has against the Nuggets this season.
