By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
After trailing 3-1 in their playoff series against the Utah Jazz, the Denver Nuggets pulled-off the necessary stops to complete their comeback through a collective effort in Game 7, 80-78, to devastate Donovan Mitchell and his gang.
What seemed to be a lopsided series turned into a slugfest after Nuggets guard Jamal Murray went into a scoring spree during the last games of the series backed by their all-star center, Nikola Jokic.
The Nuggets looked to finish the series early in Game 7 after leading by as much as 19 but Mitchell won’t let his team bow down and carried the Jazz with a scoring frenzy in the third quarter to eventually take the lead in the fourth quarter.
Things went back-and-forth in the final frame with both the Jazz and Nuggets coaching staff making adjustments down the stretch.
Denver coach Michael Malone decided to put Gary Harris on Mitchell in the crucial moments of the game which paid off bigtime.
Tied at 78 with 30 seconds remaining in the game, Jokic converted a tough hookshot after a series of pivots and fakes that turned out to be the dagger and the game winner for Denver, 80-78.
The Serbian center finished the game with 30 points and 14 rebounds while Murray chipped in 17 huge points to setup a highly-anticipated Western conference semifinals against Kawhi Leonard and the Los Angeles Clippers.
