The Denver Nuggets were trying to go for their 7th straight win since the All-Star Break as they were playing The Phoenix Suns at Home in Denver. Despite, the Nuggets having one of the best home records in the NBA, this game was still not one to take lightly as the Suns were angry about last year’s playoff loss to Denver and wanted to be the ones to end Denver’s streak. However, this would be more harder than originally planned as the Suns were playing without Devin Booker who is out with an ankle injury and is scheduled to miss the next 7-10 days. Also, Josh Okogie was not in the line-up for the Suns as he had tension in his abdomen. However, the Suns would not let Booker’s absence affect them as players like Grayson Allen and Kevin Durant helped the Suns score 28 points in the first quarter. However, Jokic hit a buzzer-beater 3 to make it 32-28 Nuggets to end the quarter. Then the Suns took notice as when they were down 40-34 players like Bradley Beal and Drew Eubanks went off getting the score to 43-43. Durant also kept hitting tough baskets all quarter long, and with the quality teamwork efforts by the Suns when the second quarter ended the Suns had 37 points compared to the Nuggets 18. Ultimately making the score at halftime 65-50 Phoenix.

However just like they have done all season Denver came alive in the 3rd quarter with MPJ, Jamal Murray, and Jokic all getting solid points. Scoring 31 points in comparison to The Suns’ 25. At the end of the 3rd quarter, the score was 90-81 Phoenix and then in the 4th Denver went ballistic. They came back and got it to 94-90 with the 3 main Nuggets starters going crazy. Then it was 99-97 Phoenix and Kaldwell Pope shot a 3 to give Denver their first lead of the night with 1:29 left in the 4th quarter. Then Murray got a 2 making it 102-99, however, with 27 seconds The Suns had the ball and gave it to Kevin Durant who despite being 1/8 from 3 at the point he pulled a shot and got it to go. Making it 102-102, then the Nuggets had the final possession of the game and the ball was in Jokic’s hands who shot a contested 2 at the buzzer with Eubanks on him because Nurkic fouled out. But, the ball hit the rim and rolled out to Aaron Gordan who dunked it in after the buzzer went and it didn’t count so the game went to Overtime.

In Overtime, it was almost like the Suns were glad they made it out of that 4th quarter as they came out revamped Eubanks got a 2, KD got a 3, Beal got a 3, and it was 110-104 Suns with 2:46 remaining in the quarter. Then a few quick 2’s by the Suns made it 114-104 and with 1:09 left Jokic popped a 3 to make it 114-107. However, it would ultimately be too little too late as KD brought the ball back to Denver’s side and pooped a dagger 3 with 49 seconds left making it 117-107. This shot effectively ended the game as KD had 8 points out of the 15 points scored in that quarter. Overall, his performance ended up being the difference as the final score of the competition stayed at 117-107 as the Nuggets finished with only 5 points in the overtime. Kevin Durant finished with 35 points, 8 rebounds, and 5 assists, Grayson Allen 28 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, and Bradley Beal with 16 all without Devin Booker in the line-up. The key players for The Nuggets tonight despite the loss were Jamal Murray, Jokic and Porter. Murray had 28 points, 7 rebounds, and 9 assists, and Jokic had 25 points, 16 rebounds, and 5 assists. MPJ had 20 points and 7 rebounds.

Despite these players’ good performances, there were still flaws with Aaron Gordan only having 7, KCP 11, and the defence in that second quarter being non-existent. The defence in the second quarter was so bad that when asked about what went wrong in the second quarter in the post-game interview Nuggets head coach Michael Malone said “You win the 1st quarter, you win the 3rd quarter, you win the 4th quarter but they outscored us 37-18, and went on a 21-1 run. We weren’t making any shots we had 5 turnovers, and 6 points during that stretch, we did nothing in that quarter, and we weren’t working hard enough they had 37 points on 59% from the field. And when you’re down you have to expend energy to get back into the game, we had a great look at the end of the buzzer. Then you had overtime we gave up 15 points, I think they were 6/7 from the field, 3/3 from three, and our first 2 possessions of overtime were turnovers so we kinda got behind the 8 ball rather quickly. But I think that game was lost in the second quarter”. This speech by Michael Malone shows some stats that caused the Nuggets’ downfall, as they had 15 turnovers in the game and he thought they had to end up wasting a lot of energy in the comeback attempt.

The fact, that they were even able to manage a comeback attempt is impressive. However, when given the chance to close the game they still only put up 5 points in Overtime and that makes all that effort they put up in the 3rd and 4th worth nothing. However, this loss is not the end of the world for Nuggets fans as now the Nuggets record is 42-20 and they have a 24-6 home record. But, the negative side for the fans is that since they lost they gained no placement on the Timberwolves and the Thunder which would have been greatly valuable for The Nuggets because both teams lost in competitions this week. Nonetheless, losing is a part of basketball the Nuggets hope to get over it as they play one of the Best teams in the NBA the Boston Celtics whose 11-game-winning streak just came to an end on Tuesday when they lost to The Cavaliers by 1. The game is on Thursday and will be in Denver so hopefully, the Nuggets can get back to their home-winning antics by winning this one.