Prior to Wednesday night’s game against the Knicks, Nuggets coach Mike Malone talked about “next man up.”
As in what had to happen to capture a victory with two-time MVP Nikola Jokic out of the lineup. The center entered health and safety protocol Tuesday night.
As it turned out, the man Malone was looking for failed to show up in crunch time and the Knicks rallied for a rare 106-103 win at Ball Arena.
How rare? New York had not beaten the Nuggets in Denver since Nov. 8, 2006, a span of 14 consecutive losses.
The Nuggets overcame a sluggish first half and seemed to take control late behind the play of guards Jamal Murray and Bones Hyland. But Denver’s offense was disjointed down the stretch and New York’s Jalen Brunson sunk two free throws with 10.5 seconds left to seal the deal.
The Knicks’ Julius Randal led all scorers with 34 points.
Murray, naturally, tried to put the game on his shoulders and scored 21 points. And Hyland, coming back from illness, wasn’t scheduled to play much, but he put on a show in his 23 minutes, scoring 21 points and draining five 3-pointers on 10 attempts. Included in his performance was a buzzer-beater 3-pointer at the end of the third quarter that brought the crowd to its feet.
New York stretched its lead to 66-60 with 8:16 left in the third quarter when Malone called for a timeout and a little bit of regrouping. It did the trick. The Nuggets went on 9-0 runs to take a 69-66 lead on Murray’s 27-foot running jumper.
But it was the hometown Nuggets, not the visiting Knicks, who faded in the fourth quarter.
Michael Porter Jr., so good in the Nuggets’ victory at Chicago when he scored 31 points (including 6 of 9 on 3s) in just 24 minutes, was AWOL Wednesday night, scoring just five points. Porter scored just three points, hitting just one shot on eight shots from the field (1 for 6 on 3-pointers), in the first half as the Knicks took a 55-54 lead.
If the Knicks were experiencing any high-altitude hangover after beating the Jazz Tuesday night at Salt Lake, they didn’t show it in the first quarter. Led by Randle’s 12 points, they led 30-27.
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