Nuggets Film Room: The latest addition to Gary Harris’ growing skill set

The Denver Nuggets were in danger of suffering their worst loss of the season Friday against the Memphis Grizzlies, which is saying something considering some of their previous defeats. On Jan. 6, they committed 26 turnovers and fell to the lowly Sacramento Kings on the road. Four days later, they lost to the Atlanta Hawks at home. On Tuesday, they blew a 19-point lead against the Boban Marjanovic-led Los Angeles Clippers.

There have been some bad losses, but dropping a game to the tanking Memphis Grizzlies on Friday would’ve represented a new low. Denver led by as many as 16 points in the second half. With less than a minute to go, its lead was down to two. The Nuggets, who were struggling to get anything going on offense, desperately needed someone to step up late in the game.

Gary Harris did.

With the shot clock winding down, he put Dillon Brooks on ice skates with a gorgeous series of moves and drilled a tough step-back jumper from 19 feet away. The shot pushed the lead back to four with 59 seconds to play, and the Nuggets hung on to win 108-102.

Harris, who’s gone from a 3.4-points-per game scorer as a rookie to averaging 17.9 points per game in year four, seems to always be adding new features to his game. In 2016-17, he thrived alongside Nikola Jokic thanks to his ability to knock down catch-and-shoot threes and finish at the rim. This year, he’s taken another step by demonstrating the ability to hit shots off the dribble.

Harris attempted only 1.9 pull-up shots per game a season ago, according to NBA.com. He knocked those down at a 31.4 percent rate. This year, he’s taking 4.0 pull-up shots per contest and converting 40.3 percent of them. He’s more than just a stand-still shooter now. That’s especially valuable for Denver late in games when the defensive intensity ratchets up and uncontested shots are hard to come by.

“With him, he’s worked on different things each year,” Darrell Arthur said on the BSN Nuggets Podcast. “This past year, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but his handle has gotten so much better … He’s a guy who’s always in the gym, always working on his game.”

On Saturday, Harris helped the Nuggets close out the game against the Cleveland Cavaliers by drilling a three over Tristan Thompson. Harris received a dribble hand-off from Jokic and noticed that the Cavaliers were switching. Harris backed up as if to size Thompson up, saw that Thompson’s hands were down and took advantage.

Somewhere, Mark Jackson screamed “HAND DOWN, MAN DOWN” before the game went to a commercial break.

Harris has quietly developed into one of Denver’s best late-game options in part because of his new-found ability to drill shots off the bounce. He’s 17-37 on field goals in clutch situations, which the NBA defines as any time the score is within five points in the last five minutes of a game. That comes out to a respectable 45.9 percent.

On Feb. 23, Harris scored six points in the final 3:05 of Denver’s dramatic 122-119 win over the San Antonio Spurs. Jokic picked up five fouls in the fourth quarter of that game and fouled out with 1:46 to play. In Denver’s first possession without The Joker, Harris supplied the offense by converting a tough step-back.

“I was confident in the shot, and I just felt like it was a good shot to take,” Harris said.

Last week, Richard Jefferson joked that Harris, “doesn’t have no sexy in his game.” Jefferson likes to needle his younger teammate about his robotic finishes at the rim.

“He finishes like a stiff-ass football player,” Jefferson said.

Perhaps late-game shots like the one Harris hit against the Grizzlies on Friday will convince Jefferson to stop giving his teammate such a hard time. Shaking an opponent out of his shoes and sinking a clutch pull-up shot is the epitome of sexy on a basketball court.