Nuggets-Trail Blazers Grades: Jokic and Barton carry the load

The Denver Nuggets kept their playoff hopes alive by outlasting the Portland Trail Blazers 88-82 on Monday. It was the type of defensive struggle Denver would have had trouble winning earlier this season.

Here’s how each Nuggets player graded out.

*Our game grades are dictated by our Dynamic Player Rating (DPR), which take into account 12 different statistical factors.

Will Barton (B) 82.68 — How good has Barton been lately? He scored 31 points on 15 shots against the Clippers on Saturday and followed that up with a 22-point performance against the Trail Blazers, his old team. Barton was the only Denver player who was in rhythm offensively. He went 6-9 on shots at the rim and 8-15 overall. He also played one of his best defensive games of the season as well, applying pressure on Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum. Denver outscored Portland by 15 points in Barton’s 39 minutes on the floor.

Nikola Jokic (A) 82.62 — Jokic dominated on an off shooting night. That’s a sign of progress. Jokic grabbed 20 rebounds, winning the rebounding battle in the second half after Jusuf Nurkic spent the first two quarters killing Denver on the glass. He also handed out more assists (11) than Portland did as a team. All of it added up to Jokic’s 10th triple-double of the season.

Paul Millsap (C-) 47.62 — It was a brutal shooting night for Millsap. He took 10 shots and only made two. He guarded Nurkic for most of the game — an effort to keep Jokic out of foul trouble — and struggled. Nurkic grabbed eight offensive rebounds and scored 20 points.

Wilson Chandler (C+) 59.96 — Not a lot stuck out about Chandler’s night. He hit a pair of threes and provided some offense in a game where Denver had trouble manufacturing it. He made two of the six three-pointers Denver hit. He also had a steal and a block.

Jamal Murray (D+) 46.94 — Murray had so many wide open looks from three-point land that he couldn’t convert. He went cold in a 4-14 shooting performance. Luckily for Denver, those misses didn’t prevent Murray from stepping up and knocking down two clutch free throws with 30.3 seconds left. Those makes extended Denver’s lead to four. Murray is 26-27 on “clutch” free throws this season, which the NBA defines as any time the score is within five points in the last five minutes of a game.

Gary Harris (C+) 59.75 — Harris returned to the lineup after missing 11 games with a right knee strain. All things considered, he played well for not suiting up in nearly a month. He looked explosive in going 4-9 from the floor in 18 minutes. He played his steady brand of steady basketball.

Mason Plumlee (C+) 59.14 — Plumlee was one of two Nuggets to make at least half his shots. He went 3-4 from the field, all on shots inside. One of his makes was a reverse dunk because is it even a Nuggets game if Plumlee doesn’t throw it down backwards? He gave Denver some solid minutes.

Devin Harris (D+) 47.09 — Say this for Harris: He’s not shy about getting shots up. He shot the ball nine times in 14 minutes, converting on only two of them. He’s a steady hand off the bench who doesn’t make many huge mistakes, but he’s struggled to score the basketball efficiently in a Nuggets uniform.