Back in familiar territory, Nikola Jokic lays out his hopes for Game 5

The Nuggets have been here before, just under three weeks ago in fact.

With their backs up against the wall versus the Jazz, the Nuggets got a 42-point performance in Game 5 from Jamal Murray, then another 50-piece from Murray in Game 6 and turned up the defensive intensity on the Utah Jazz to become the 12th team to overcome a 3-1 series deficit.

Of course, the Clippers are a different animal, and for all of Murray’s heroics in the first round, he hasn’t shown many signs of breaking free of Kawhi Leonard, Paul George and Patrick Beverley’s claws. Murray’s averaging just under 18 points per game so far against the Clippers and shooting only 38% from the field. Defense wasn’t the problem at least in Game 4 against LA either. The Nuggets held the Clippers under 100 points for the first time in the playoffs Wednesday but still lost by 11.

“To be honest, defense was really good tonight,” Nikola Jokic said postgame. “I think the defense was not the problem. But they had a really good defense too.”

In Game 4, the Nuggets got a dose of the championship-level defense the Clippers can apply when they’re locked in. Throughout the night LA was “dogging and hounding” Murray, as Michael Malone put it after the loss, and applying double-teams on Jokic when appropriate. The result was just what Doc Rivers and the Clippers were hoping for. Denver’s role players got shots — open shots — and took them. For the most part they missed.

For the third time in the last four games, the Nuggets shot 33% of worse from three-point range and in Game 4, Nuggets not named Nikola or Jamal shot a combined 5-17 from three. In the series, Grant is shooting 22% on nearly six three-point attempts per game. Craig and Monte Morris are a combined 2-16 from beyond the arc.

Michael Porter Jr. was the lone Nuggets role player who showed signs of life in Game 4, but his night essentially ended after the first half. Porter checked into the game at the 4:27 mark of the first quarter with the Nuggets trailing 18-7. He then scored a team-high 15 points in the first half to help Denver outscore LA 33-32 before the break.

But Porter was frozen out of the Nuggets’ offense over the final two quarters despite playing more than 17 continuous minutes after checking in midway through the third. Porter recorded three offensive touches in the third and zero in the fourth even though he played the entire quarter.

You read that correctly. Zero touches in 12 fourth-quarter minutes for Porter.

MPJ played a continuous 17:28 in the 2nd half of Game 4 (from 5:28 in the third through the end of the game). He had three offensive touches in the 3rd and touched the ball zero times on offense in the 4th despite playing the entire quarter. His last offensive touch of the game: pic.twitter.com/7802cojqwv

— Harrison Wind (@HarrisonWind) September 10, 2020

“I just think to beat that team we’ve got to get more players involved,” Porter said following the loss. “We’ve got to move the ball a little bit better. We can’t be predictable against that team.”

I’m going to defer to the number of current and former NBA players from Damian Lillard to Jameer Nelson, Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal who have said Porter needed to keep his postgame comments in house, but it doesn’t mean that what the rookie said was wrong. The Nuggets’ offense, which orbits around the Jokic-Murray two-man game, has gotten a tad predictable. LA has the personnel to neutralize Murray and when it throws a timely double Jokic’s way and the Nuggets do find a release valve in one of their secondary players, that’s a win for the Clippers.

All of the signs of a failing Nuggets offense were on display during the second-half of Game 4. Poor ball movement. A lot of standing and watching. Iffy shot selection. For the last half of this third-quarter possession, Murray had his hands on his knees.

Perhaps Denver finds some sense of familiarity down 3-1. Jokic, the Nuggets’ one source of consistency this series, hopes Denver can.

After Game 4, Jokic evoked memories of the Nuggets’ historic comeback against the Jazz and how when Denver was in a win-or-go-home scenario, it played its best basketball of the playoffs.

The Nuggets are back in familiar territory. Finding that grit, resiliency, and fearlessness that Denver was able to against Utah is the key to any hope the Nuggets have of extending the series.

“I think we just need to relax and enjoy the moment,” Jokic said. “Everybody’s putting a lot of pressure on themself. Hopefully the next game is going to be better because we were winning when we were going home. … You need to get worried. We all need to be a little bit more relaxed and don’t have so much pressure on our self.”