Mark Monte Morris down as someone who believes Gary Harris is beginning to emerge from a season-long shooting slump.
Denver’s backup point guard was so confident that Harris’ second-quarter triple was going to drop that he began to celebrate with his backcourt partner well before Harris’ shot reached the basket.
“I knew it was cash even before he shot it,” Morris said.
Harris’ corner 3 was the first of his two 3-pointers in the Nuggets’ 128-116 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves. Overall, Harris has knocked in six of his last 13 triples, a big improvement from the 30.5% he has shot from 3-point range this season.
Season-long shooting slumps aren’t broken in one week, let along one game and before Sunday when Harris shot 2 of 3 from distance he was one of just two players in the league along with Justise Winslow shooting 40% or worse from the field and 30% or worse 3 while playing over 30 minutes per game. But incremental progress is all the Nuggets and Harris can hope for at this point in the year.
Harris’ offensive numbers on the season aren’t pretty. He’s in the 30th percentile among wings in 3-point shooting and from the short midrange zone (5-14 ft.), where Harris takes around 20% of his field goal attempts from, he’s shooting just 26%, which slots him in the 18th percentile at his position. Harris converted on 38% of his attempts from that zone last season.
Denver ran an abundance of actions and sets for Harris against Minnesota Morris said postgame in an effort to help the shooting guard find his rhythm, and his teammates and coaches know that the Nuggets can’t achieve their goals this season unless they get Harris back on track. Harris shot 5 of 10 from the field Sunday and even had a vintage 2016-17 or 2017-18-esque finish at the rim in the first half.
“To see him attacking, to see him making shots and being aggressive, hopefully that’s going to be the beginning of getting Gary back,” Michael Malone said. “Because we know we can’t be the team we want to be without Gary playing at the level he’s capable of.”
Despite his offensive struggles, Harris’ minutes haven’t dropped. He’s averaging 32 minutes per game this season, up from the 28.8 he averaged a year go mainly because of his defense, which hasn’t waned even with his shortcomings on the other end of the floor.
Malone called Harris’ defensive effort Sunday on former Nugget Malik Beasley “outstanding” and Beasley, who coming into the matchup against Denver was getting up an average of 18.5 shots per game, didn’t attempt a field goal until the 2:34 mark of the first quarter. Overall, Beasley shot 6 of 13 from the field for 17 points. Only one of Beasley’s makes came with Harris as his primary defender.
“He was ready for it. He was locked in from the jump,” Morris said of Harris. “I could tell by the way he was in the locker room, wasn’t much talking. He knew Malik could get it going, everybody knows that. He just wanted to come out and make it tough on him.”
Was there a little extra something to the matchup between the two ex-teammates who competed for minutes at the two-guard position during the time Beasley spent in Denver? That’s up for interpretation but there was plenty of trash talk coming from Beasley and directed towards the Nuggets’ bench throughout the night.
“Malik, very lively, personable, talking a lot, and I think it was something with Gary, like he does every night, but this one was a little extra special having the chance to go out there and lock him up,” Malone said. “But it’s great to see both Juancho and Malik playing well for them and obviously we miss them. We’re happy for their success.”
It was no secret that for Beasley his first game back in Denver since the deadline deal 2 1/2 weeks ago which sent him, Juancho Hernangomez, who finished with seven points (2-7 shooting) and four rebounds against the Nuggets, and Jarred Vanderbilt, who’s on a G League assignment, to the Timberwolves carried more significance than a run of the mill regular season matchup in February.
Beasley was all business during a media session Saturday following Minnesota’s practice at Denver West High School and brushed off talk of if there was any extra nostalgia or emotion ahead of his first matchup against his old teammates.
“No. Just ready to play,” Beasley said. “Ready to battle no matter what team it is.”
Around 11 a.m., five hours before Sunday’s tip, Beasley went through a shooting session at Pepsi Center. Then, an hour or so before tip-off Beasley was on the court again going through his normal warmup.
But after the final buzzer sounded the two sides exchanged pleasantries. The Nuggets first congregated around Hernangomez, who was on the floor for the final moments of regulation, and then made their way to Beasley as he walked towards center court from Minnesota’s bench. Hugs were shared.
“It was like practice, it was weird,” Beasley said. “I’m mad we lost, honestly. Right now, that’s all I can think about. It was weird, though. It was cool to be out there and compete with those guys because we had that brotherhood for four years. It was a weird feeling.”
Beasley and Hernangomez, who are both slated for restricted free agency this summer, will have to wait until next season for another crack at the club who drafted both of them in the first round in 2016. Sunday’s game was the final meeting between the Nuggets and Timberwolves this season but the two Northwest Division foes are slated for four matchups next year.
If Beasley sticks in Minnesota, which by most indications he will (the scuttlebutt from those around the team is that the Timberwolves will match any offer sheet that’s thrown at the 23-year-old this summer), he’ll see the Nuggets plenty during the regular season. He’ll have many more opportunities to get the better of his former team.
