PLAYOFF-2020 (Game#6, R1): [3]Denver Nuggets vs [6]Utah Jazz (2-3), SUN/Aug30, 21:30ET

[THE J0KER]

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[THE J0KER]

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There will not be changes in Nuggets starting lineup tonight. Even with limited minutes, Harris as a defensive specialist should start IMO, because he should every minute of his play cover Mitchell, not waste time on Jazz 2nd unit guys. And even more important, hope MPJ coming from the bench will not prevent him from playing 35 minutes.

[THE J0KER]

Denver leads on halftime, but +10 was downgraded to +5 on the cheap way in the final minute.

Muray is spectacular once again with 25 points already.

Jokic definitely lost his rebounds since bubble restart but seems he back his playmaking role tonight.

Harris and MPJ have the highest +/- despite Porter were scoreless, but in just 10 minutes he is a game leader in rebounds with 6 while Harris put good defense as expected.

Out of 9 Nuggets players played in 1st half, nobody was bad, and the percentages are just great, but 9 turnovers are too much.

[skywalker33]

Murray seems focused on a Game 7

[THE J0KER]

In all previous 5 games, Utah lead after 3rd quarter, now finally Denver leads, and +9 is not a small advantage. We should win this.

[skywalker33]

Big shot by Grant. 1-2-3

[skywalker33]

Murray smooth on those floaters. Mitchell leans in almost every shot to get the and1

[LipSkinMatter]

Royce O'Neale is the worst player of all time. Jamal Murray is not.

[skywalker33]

Murray’s turning into a machine !

[The Rebel]

What a difference Harris makes on the defense, I know defense is ignored by some, but he is a huge game changer.

Is Murray becoming consistent? If he becomes a consistent even 25/5/5 type of guy than he is a bargain on a young guy max deal especially if he plays this way in the playoffs. If MPJ can develop a little better defense and get his stroke back, than we we have an amazing future, and this year is far from over right now.

[THE J0KER]

Murray playing out of blue. Just no words. 36-42-50-50 games (+2 blowouts) with insane efficiency is insane! 22-35 for three in the last three games... He looks like a blood cool killer whole game, but in a post-game interview, you can see how he is emotional actually.

Jokic 22-4-9 is ok for his regular season's games, but the is obviously not 100% ready which makes Murray games much more worthy.

Harris is back, and his presence helped our defense. Mitchell scored 44 points, but Clarkson is stopped, especially in 2nd half.

Jeramy Grant was two-way great tonight with 6-9 18 points (including 4-7 threes). With Jokic not 100% ready and MPJ bad shooting night even 50p Murray would not be enough without someone like Grant.

Porter has an awful 1-7 shooting night, but he with a reason takes Millsap minutes in 2nd half. Denver outrebounded Utah 43-30, and with 12 rebounds he dominated in that category and finished with highest +/- tonight.

The rest of the team was OK (Morris, Craig, Plumlee), except Millsap. He plays like 35 old, but he is 35 old, so what our FO was thinking of signing (using team option) 30M with him this season.

Nuggets are favorites once again, and if George continues to struggle, we even have some chances vs Clippers.

[skywalker33]

Gotta enjoy it for a while but we still have a game 7 to play. Momentum is definitely on our side but Mitchell can control a game at will, he's that good. Murray is living another strong playoff series, gaining a killer rep as such, gotta say I'm loving it and hope it continues.

Still, game 7 is not in the books YET !!

[NuggetsWY]

Mitchell still had a monster game: 9-13 from three. Conley had a nice game too. Both of them play two ends of the court. Conley had a rough start in Utah, but I always believed in him and it looks like he's going to fit nicely next to Mitchell. Gobert is a great center. If I'm Utah, I'm looking for a better forward. Theirs are good, but if they can upgrade either one, this is going to be a tougher team for sure.

Jokic had a nice enough game. So did Grant. They look like a nice combination. Morris had a decent game too. But this game was all about Murray. 75% from three (9-12) and 676% from two (8-12) and 78% from FT (7-9) --- 24 FGA is a number a true All-Star needs to be hitting on a regular basis - IMPRESSIVE!

Harris didn't make a big contribution - in the box score. But if you watched the game, he brought an excellent effort on the defensive end, with some hustle on the offensive end too. He shows more awareness of team-defense concepts than most of the Nuggets. He isn't just a lock-down defensive one-on-one player. He plays nice team-defense --- love his game!

Porter had a rough game and he looked lost on defense but not as bad as he used to be. He's learning. What impressed me was the effort he put in. Until I looked at the box score though, I didn't even realize he had 12 rebounds. That's something that doesn't happen if he's not putting in the effort. In fact, Craig had 6 boards and Plumlee had 5 and Harris had 3. That's 26 rebounds off the bench - more than the starters had. Wow!

This was a team win - well, it was a Murray-led team win.

The rest of the team was OK (Morris, Craig, Plumlee), except Millsap. He plays like 35 old, but he is 35 old, so what our FO was thinking of signing (using team option) 30M with him this season.

In my opinion, this front office tends to fall in love with their role players. They tend to over-value them. Look back on Faried, Gallinari, Chandler, and multiple others: all good players but probably over-paid. Then they end up unable to retain them.

I think it might be part of the Denver-syndrome - difficult to get players to come to Denver. If Jokic-Murray-Porter becomes what we are hoping for, maybe all of that can go away.

With that said, I agree that Millsap seems to be playing himself out of a contract offer IMO. He's not a bad player. A lot of his contributions don't show up in the box score, but it's beginning to look like his game doesn't fit in Denver - not like it once did.

[The Rebel]

Millsap is just not quick enough anymore to do what we need him to do on defense and his offense looks terrible since the bubble started. I love that he came here when he was the 2nd best free agent on the market, and I think his 1st 2 years he made a big difference in the development of the team and us becoming who we are. I also think it is time we move on. If we bring back Grant to start than we need more of an enforcer type at PF, and Millsap just is not that guy. I can see Millsap getting another MLE type of deal to go somewhere like Atlanta where he can be the veteran lockeroom guy and come off the bench for 20 minutes a game.

It is funny watching the reaction around the message boards and from national broadcasters on Murray, it reminds me of the reaction when people realized Jokic was the real deal a couple of years ago. A month ago most non Nuggets fans had him pegged as a terrible contract, we were laughed at when we said we were fine with the contract, now some idiots are arguing he is better than Jokic. He is having an amazing series and I am enjoying watching him go off but I would just be happy if he was consistently good.