MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The Nuggets nearly succumbed to the Grizzlies’ Grit-and-Grind style yet again, but a furious fourth-quarter rally sealed one of the team’s best — and most riveting — wins of the season Monday night, 95-92.
The Nuggets, down by 25 points midway through the third quarter and still trailing by 19 early in the fourth, defended with a furious tenacity and stormed back to take their first lead of the game with less than a minute left after connected on a 3-pointer from the top of the arc.
Though they momentarily relinquished the lead when Grizzlies wing Justin Holiday buried a corner 3-pointer, the Nuggets immediately turned to their best player in the clutch.
sunk a turnaround hook in the lane to retake the lead at 93-92, and the Nuggets didn’t trail again, surviving a Mike Conley 3-point attempt at the buzzer to escape with the win. Denver, paced by Jokic’s 24 points, improved to 34-15.
The Nuggets never would’ve had a chance to steal the road win were it not for Malik Beasley, who scored 13 of his 18 points in the fourth quarter and swung all the momentum in Denver’s favor. His fourth-quarter sequence that cut an 11-point lead to seven with back-to-back layups gave the Nuggets belief, even with under four minutes remaining.
“I think Malik put us in that position,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. “Gary (Harris) made big plays, Will Barton made big plays, our bench was phenomenal, they were into the game. We never gave up. The thing I’m most proud about tonight, on the road, when you’re down, 70-45, whatever it was in the second half, a lot of teams roll over. And there was no roll over tonight.”
The Grizzlies got 28 points from Marc Gasol and 23 from Conley, but the Grizzlies folded in the fourth with just 15 points.
The Nuggets’ defense improved markedly in the third quarter, but their only reliable source of offense was Jokic, who scored 15 of their 19 points. His assertiveness gave the Nuggets a clearly defined offense for one of the few times of the night.
“We always talk about kills,” Malone said. “A kill is getting three stops in a row. In the second half we had eight sets of kills. So we were getting multiple stops in a row, and you could just feel the whole momentum of the game shift in our favor.”
Denver’s last trip to Memphis, a loss Nov. 7, was an early turning point during their strong start. Jokic, who had been fined by the NBA earlier that day for an offensive remark, only took one shot in a passive performance unbecoming of his star status. Time will tell, but Monday could prove to be another formative game in a season full of them.
To his credit, Jokic didn’t let his suspension two games earlier impact him in his return Saturday. On Monday, though he didn’t find his touch until the second half, he was still aggressive.
“There was no doubt in my mind if he or we would have any negative remnants from that suspension,” Malone said. “Wasn’t gone for a week, he didn’t miss significant time. It was one game, and he came back and did what I expected him to do, which is be our best player and set the tone for us right away.”
Prior to Monday, the Nuggets had been able to withstand missing either Jokic or , who missed his second consecutive game with an ankle injury. His status for Wednesday’s game against New Orleans was still up in the air.
“I think it speaks to how deep we are, how talented we are,” Malone said. “We have a lot of weapons. You can put big numbers when Nikola’s out due to suspension, you can put big numbers up when you’re without three starters and you can do it when Jamal’s sitting on the bench, and he’s one of our top scorers. How we play for each other is a big part of that.”
The Nuggets’ recent recipe — relying on offense at the expense of the defense — was a precarious scheme against a sound defensive team like Memphis.
“I wouldn’t say dangerous,” small forward Barton said. “I think we just need to focus on (the defensive) end. You always want your offense clicking, especially going into a game with a team like Memphis where they’re used to playing good defense and they got that Grit-and-Grind thing. We have to become better defensively.”
Denver’s defensive woes continued in the first half, exploited by the Grizzlies’ battle-tested cornerstones. Gasol and Conley, both reportedly on the trading block as Memphis contemplates its future, combined for 33 points over the first two quarters as the Grizzlies built a 60-41 lead.
It was a perfect storm of porous defense and fragmented offense. There were numerous transition lapses and defensive breakdowns, but the typically high-powered Nuggets offense couldn’t make any headway on the other end. Denver shot 4-of-19 from the 3-point line in the first half with most of its offense coming via Barton’s creativity in isolation.
