The Jazz limped into Ball Arena Saturday night a hurting unit, with injuries to key players and stinging from a 118-108 home loss to Minnesota on Friday night.
“Those teams scare me,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. “This game will test our maturity.”
And Denver’s frequent matador defense. Olé!
Sure enough, the Jazz pushed the Nuggets to the limit before Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic — Denver’s two veterans — carried the Nuggets to a 115-110 victory.
Jokic pulled off a triple-double — 31 points, 12 rebounds and 14 assists — and his perfect feed to Bruce Brown for a slam with 1:19 left was the key bucket of the game.