While this wasn’t the story for the whole game, it started with the Nuggets looking good on defense. Aaron Gordon had 6 early points mainly off of transition dunks; Nikola Jokic also pitched in an early transition dunk. Then Jamal Murray had a very familiar midrange pull up, putting Mike Conley to sleep before shooting it right over him. After he scored his second basket, a nice layup in transition, the Jazz called a timeout.
Out of the timeout, the defense that had been smothering before became nothing more than a thin facade of defensive effort for the Nuggets.