PHILADELPHIA — Jalen Pickett backpedaled down the court with a hop in his step and a cocky gleam in his eye. Hunter Tyson blurted profanities with glee after converting a 4-point play. Zeke Nnaji rained 3s and imposed his strength as if he was Joel Embiid. The Nuggets reserves swaggered and flexed, and the Nuggets starters cheered from the end of the bench.
Up was down and left was right and the Nuggets refused to accept any notion of a scheduled loss against Embiid and Tyrese Maxey and Paul George and the red-hot 76ers.
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Bruce Brown scored a go-ahead fast-break layup with 5.3 seconds left when Joel Embiid committed goal-tending on the block attempt, and the Nuggets pulled off one of the most improbable wins of the NBA season Monday -- 125-124 in overtime without seven rotation players, including the full starting lineup. It snapped a four-game winning streak by the Sixers.
Pickett led the Nuggets with 29 points on a 7-for-11 shooting night beyond the arc. Nnaji added 21 points and eight rebounds off the bench. Brown, the most experienced player participating for Denver, contributed 19 points and six boards.
It all made up for a brutal loss in the first leg of a back-to-back Sunday. The Nuggets brought back Aaron Gordon and Christian Braun from prolonged injury absences, pushing their chips to the center of the table in search of a win at Brooklyn. They played Jamal Murray for 40 minutes. They played Tim Hardaway Jr. for 34 off the bench. It was the deepest they've been in any game since Nikola Jokic's injury. They botched the opportunity.
The sting of the loss was amplified by the domino effect of their decision to go all in. Denver rested Murray, Hardaway, Gordon and Braun for the second leg. Nikola Jokic and Cam Johnson were already out, recovering from knee injuries. Backup center Jonas Valanciunas was also sidelined by a calf strain.
Murray missed just his second game this season. His absence was attributed to a left ankle sprain on Denver's official injury report. He's been playing through mild pain in recent weeks.
Teams are prohibited from resting star players in nationally televised games if they're healthy, according to a rule instituted in 2023 to combat the rising tide of "load management." But the NBA can't issue a fine to the Nuggets for sitting Murray out because he doesn't meet the "star player" criteria outlined by the Player Participation Policy. Although he's widely seen as a star, he has never been named to an All-Star or All-NBA team.
"He's played limitless minutes. ... It's not just the minutes guys play. It's what they're doing in those minutes," coach David Adelman said of the decision to sit Murray. "The responsibility has been crazy. His ankle flared up. Even yesterday, I thought he fought through it. The fourth quarter, I kept thinking I was gonna get him out, and we kept kind of staying in the game. So if anybody needed it, it was him. Not to mention all the other small injuries for that guy. He's beat-up."
Adelman also said Hardaway has been dealing with an illness. The veteran guard, who hadn't missed a game before this, joined Gordon, Braun, Jokic and Valanciunas on the Nuggets' sideline in street clothes. Jokic even appeared to shout advice at his young teammates as they prepared for the final defensive possession of the game, which ended with Tyrese Maxey's floater rolling off the rim as time expired.
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The Nuggets tried to cancel out their inherent size disadvantage by hoisting up as many 3s as they could early. Pickett and Nnaji got hot and kept them afloat. Philadelphia dominated a mini-stretch when it played two bigs, but the Nuggets answered after Adem Bona subbed out, finishing the first half tied.
They always answered -- even when the 76ers seemed to finally put their foot down early in the fourth quarter by taking a nine-point lead. Tyson contributed two "and-one" plays during the wacky 14-0 Denver run that followed. Nnaji, who had forced the Sixers to respect him with above-the-break 3s, started attacking close-outs and power-dribbling his way to tough baskets in the paint. Watson kept drawing fouls when he went downhill.
Bruce Brown scored five consecutive points to give his team a 120-115 lead in the last two minutes, highlighted by a corner 3-pointer assisted by a dazzling Pickett skip pass to the weak side. But Philly responded with five straight points and earned a chance to win it on the last possession of regulation. As Maxey tried to get separation from Pickett for a game-winning jumper, he dribbled off his foot and lost the ball, giving the Nuggets new life.
Nine players were available for Adelman to use, including two on two-way contracts: Pickett, Brown, Watson, Tyson, Nnaji, Spencer Jones, DaRon Holmes II, Julian Strawther and Curtis Jones.
Seven of those nine had combined for 47 career NBA starts. Curtis Jones had not played any NBA minutes outside of garbage time; Holmes played his first such minutes last week in Toronto.
"Hoping for no foul trouble, obviously," Adelman half-joked before the game.
He got more than he was hoping for.
