Five Observations: Gary Harris, Jamal Murray nearly lead Nuggets to upset win

The Denver Nuggets concluded a six-game road trip with a 124-118 loss the Boston Celtics on Wednesday. It was not the result the Nuggets wanted, but they were competitive for 48 minutes against one of the NBA’s best teams. Here are five observations from the game.

1. Gary Harris’ huge night

There are times when Gary Harris attacks the rim that he appears to be barreling downhill with the help of an enormous imaginary slingshot. Harris builds up a head of steam quickly and explodes to the rim.

The Celtics threw a wave of long, physical defenders at Harris. None of them slowed him down. Harris made 16-25 shots and finished with 36 points — easily eclipsing his previous career high of 28.

Harris scored from every zone on the floor. He got to the rim at will and finished inside. He hit a handful of mid-range shots. And he sunk 3-8 three pointers.

One of the highlights of the game came with 7:30 remaining. With the shot clock at 0.7 seconds, Kenneth Faried tipped a jump ball to Harris, who somehow got a shot off in time and drilled a three.

Harris’ career night helped keep the game close even though Denver was without three of its best four players.

2. Jamal Murray‘s intensity

The toughest player on Denver’s roster might be a 20-year-old from Canada.

With a little less than five minutes remaining in the game, the Nuggets’ odds at pulling out a win didn’t look good. They trailed the Celtics by nine. Jamal Murray wouldn’t allow the game to slip away, though.

First, he soared in from outside the three-point arc to snag Mason Plumlee‘s missed free throw. Then he poked the ball away from Kyrie Irving away on the defensive end and came up with a steal.

Murray battled until the end. He scored 28 points, 22 of which came in the second half, and grabbed 10 rebounds. Murray just wouldn’t go away. He wound up with four offensive rebounds and three steals.

After an up-and-down start to the season, Murray is beginning to display some consistency. He’s scored 22 points or more in four of his last seven games. His outside shot is coming around. He’s hit 20-37 three-pointers in the month of December.

Murray was so cold to to start the season, he shelved his shoot-the-arrow celebration. Who knows? A few more games like this, and he might dust it off again.

3. Denver can’t string two good defensive games together

The Nuggets submitted perhaps their best defensive performance of the season in a win over the Pistons on Monday. Denver limited Detroit to 84 points. On Wednesday, Boston got to 84 midway through the third quarter.

The inability to contain dribble penetration and slow rotations were Denver’s undoing. The Celtics shot 59.5 percent from the field. They converted 82 percent of their shots at the rim — defined as four feet and in — according to Cleaning the Glass. Denver sorely misses the second line of defense Paul Millsap provided.

Kyrie Irving scored 33 on 19 shots. Jaylen Brown had 26 on 12 shots. Aron Baynes, the largest man in the world to rock a man-bun, got 17 on 11 shots.

4. Trey Lyles trying to dunk everything

Maybe it was his insertion into the starting lineup. Maybe it was a double shot of espresso we didn’t know about. For whatever reason, Trey Lyles came out with some intensity against the Celtics.

On Denver’s second possession of the game, Lyles caught the ball on the right wing with Jayson Tatum shadowing him. Lyles faced up, ripped through, took two dribbles to his left and went off the springboard for a vicious two-handed dunk.

5. Bench struggles