"I was ready to get back up there": Inside Paul Millsap's free-throw line redemption story

DENVER  — “That’s why we’re giving him $30 million,” Denver Nuggets’ head coach Michael Malone said as he opened his postgame press conference minutes after Paul Millsap sunk three clutch free-throws lifting his side to a 95-94 win over the Miami Heat.

There was no doubt in Malone’s mind that the four-time All-Star, who just 15 seconds earlier missed a pair at the line, was going to convert.

“I believed in him,” Malone said. “I’m not just saying that. I’m not a bullshit guy. I really did think he was going to make them.”

But that’s exactly why Denver inked the 32-year-old to a lucrative three-year $90 million free-agent contract this summer. For games like this. For clutch shots at the end of possessions. And to hit free-throws down the stretch. Millsap is Denver’s closer and he showed that Friday night.

“What I love is he misses two big free-throws,” Malone said. “We go right back to him. He draws the foul and calmly, coolly, steps up and knocks down three humongous free-throws.”

“He wants that pressure,” Malone continued.

Pressure? What pressure. Millsap has been through it all. Over his 12-year career, he’s won and lost close games. He’s made game-winning shots and missed game-losing layups.

“Tonight I didn’t,” Millsap said from his locker when asked if he still gets nervous this deep into his career. “The first two rimmed out. Unfortunate. I was ready to get back up there.”

Millsap’s free-throw line redemption story tied a fitting bow on a game Denver needed. After the Heat blitzed the Nuggets in the first quarter for 37 points on 79 percent shooting, Denver clawed their way back behind their starting power forward.

Millsap finished with a game-high 27 points on 9-17 shooting, to go with nine rebounds, five assists, two steals and one block. Maybe his best all-around game came when the Nuggets needed him most.

Besides Millsap, it was Nikola Jokic who battled all night with the Heat seven-footer Hassan Whiteside and finished with 19 points, 14 rebounds, four steals, and a memorable three with 10:19 on the fourth-quarter clock that gave the Nuggets a jolt of momentum.

Jokic let out a scream afterward.

“I cussed one of the….” Jokic explained as he cut himself off. “Nothing,” he said with a smile waiting for the next question.

Millsap and Jokic, who couldn’t be more opposite in their approach to the game and to an extent, life — one is the goofy 22-year-old, who cracks jokes to lighten the mood, while the other is the cagey veteran — are constantly improving their chemistry on the floor.

In Friday night’s win, the duo played perhaps their most complete game together. The two combined for 46 points and 23 rebounds. Their chemistry is growing with every minute they share the floor.

“He made it really interesting in the end,” a witty Jokic said of his frontcourt mate’s two misses. “I mean, he kind of didn’t want to make two shots, he can do whatever just make us win.”

But as Millsap closed out the Heat it was obvious that Denver’s a different team than last year at the end of games. Last season the Nuggets went 5-10 in games decided by three points or less.

It was a principal reason why Denver targeted and brought in Millsap this summer.

“These are the games we would have lost last year,” Malone said as he thanked the basketball gods above that Dion Waiters‘ three at the buzzer rattled out. “Point blank, and we didn’t.”