MIAMI — The Nuggets and Heat continued scoring at such a rapid rate, for so long, that the live stats kept inside the arena and across the Internet crashed with one overtime still to play.
Also steadily crashing? Denver’s dwindling playoff hopes. Miami outlasted the Nuggets 149-141 Monday at AmericanAirlines Arena in a double-overtime thriller that also served as Denver’s most heartbreaking blow yet to its postseason hopes.
“Itap just one of those games you just hate losing,” said second-year point guard , who finished with 23 points (5-of-16 shooting), six assists and five rebounds. “You put so much effort in … they took over in the second overtime and pulled it out.”
The Nuggets (38-33), who slipped to 0-2 to begin this season-long seven-game road trip, fell two games behind idle Minnesota for the eighth spot in the West with 11 contests remaining. On Tuesday, the Timberwolves (40-31) host the Clippers (37-32), who moved back up into ninth place in the West, while Denver is off. Other playoff contenders in action Tuesday include Oklahoma City (43-29) at Boston, New Orleans (40-30) hosting Dallas, Utah (40-30) hosting Atlanta and Portland (44-26) hosting Houston.
After ending regulation tied at 118 and the first overtime knotted at 131, the Heat outscored the Nuggets 18-10 in the second extra frame to take control. Power forward James Johnson delivered the most lethal daggers, scoring 18 of his career-high 31 points in the two extra frames. When Murray came off a screen for a 3-pointer to cut Miami’s lead to 136-134 with 2:42 left in double overtime, Johnson answered with his own longball. Another trey pushed that Miami advantage to 142-134 with 1:24 remaining. Then he got free for a dunk to keep the Heat up eight at 144-136 with less than a minute to go.
Johnson added 11 rebounds and six assists, spearheading a Heat offense that thrives on dribble-handoffs, playmaking big men and long-distance shots. Kelly Olynyk popped Denver for 30 points, eight rebounds, six assists and four blocks off the bench. Wayne Ellington added 23 points, including six 3-pointers, for a Heat team that was missing star Dwayne Wade and starting big man Hassan Whiteside due to injuries but sank a season-high 20 shots from beyond the arc on 36 attempts and set a franchise record for points scored in a game.
“They kind of picked us apart tonight,” said , who finished with 14 points and eight rebounds.
Added Murray: “Thatap probably the hardest-playing team in the NBA…itap kind of like a college game, to be honest, the way they play. Double-overtime made it worse. Everybody was tired. Adrenaline was running. Just came up short.”
scored 34 points — including the game-tying tip-in with 10 seconds to play in regulation — and added 15 rebounds in 47 minutes to pace a Denver team playing without leading scorer for the second consecutive game because of a right knee sprain/strain. complemented with 26 points on 11-of-17 shooting and five rebounds.
After an “unacceptable” Saturday loss in Memphis in which Denver lethargically fell behind by 21 points in the first half, the Nuggets displayed much better energy in racing out to an 11-point lead in the game’s first four minutes. But the Heat answered with a 21-10 run to even the contest at 26-26. A back-and-forth second quarter ended with a layup by Goran Dragic just before the buzzer that gave Miami a 64-63 advantage. Miami led by as many as seven points in the third quarter, before capped a mini 8-2 run to close the frame with a layup to cut Miami’s advantage to 92-91 before the wild final 22 minutes.
When asked to recount specific moments down the stretch, Murray acknowledged losing track because there were “too many overtimes to think about.” Even an hour after the contest, the arena stat crew could not guarantee the distributed box score was correct.
The only number that mattered? The final score.
“I feel awful for our guys,” coach Michael Malone said. “They did everything they could to try to get this win for us tonight, only to come up a little bit short.”
Added Millsap: “It hurts. We work so hard to go to double overtime and end up losing the game. But there’s still hope. … The door’s not slammed yet.”
