Nuggets paid price for challenging Draymond late in Game 3

NBC Sports

Nuggets paid price for challenging Draymond late in Game 3

Down two-games-to-none to the Warriors and inside the final minute of Game 3 at home, the Denver Nuggets smartly turned to their best player. Nikola Jokic is the reigning NBA MVP and the biggest man on the floor. Ride him.

Ride him because it’s logical. And because primary defender Draymond Green, who had surrendered many of Jokic’s 37 points, was one foul away from disqualification.

Little could they have known they were falling prey to a diabolical trap.

Green swiped Jokic’s dribble six seconds into the possession, triggering Golden State fast break, forcing a Denver foul with 31.8 seconds remaining and ultimately securing a 118-113 victory Thursday night at Ball Arena in Denver.

“I was terrible all night, recovering on the pick-and-roll,” Green said on “Warriors Postgame Live” NBC Sports Bay Area immediately after the win. “I went for several ball fakes. Coach Kerr got at me in that last timeout. I just knew I had to stay down, and I had to make him go through me. The first couple games, I was making him go through me. Tonight, I gave him a lot of angles.

“But when the money is on the line, I don’t like it when people go at me for all the marbles. I hate that.”

Betting against Draymond’s defense in the clutch is a fool’s misguided option. What did and did not happen in the previous 40-plus minutes are irrelevant. Any sins he might have been guilty of committing become a distant memory.

“Offensively, down the stretch, I thought we could have worked with some better looks,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. “When we pulled out of the timeout, give Draymond credit. He got the strip, the turnover.”

The Nuggets did it because, well, this was their best chance to win a game they needed desperately to provide a semblance of hope. The home crowd was with them. Jokic was balling. It was his bucket that gave Denver a two-point lead on his bucket with 3:20 remaining.

But this was Draymond.

Jokic did not score again. Got off only one more shot. Draymond did not allow a second. He got the clean steal and avoided the sixth foul.

“You can’t play defense the last five minutes of the game worried about fouling out,” Green said.

Warriors coach Steve Kerr trusted Green because he needed him in that moment, even as he knew there might be an overtime.

“He’s got so much confidence defensively. He just knows how to use his gifts,” Kerr said. “He’s incredibly quick and strong. He knows the advantage he has is using his speed and leverage. Jokic is so difficult to handle. He seems to get wherever he wants and once he gets to a spot, he turns and shoots. He’s got incredible touch. He just lays in so easy, makes it look so easy.

“So, for Draymond to battle him all night and to make that play at the end was a huge part of the win.”

This was the kind of game – with a furious Nuggets team playing with its highest level of ferocity thus far – that the Warriors easily might have lost without Draymond. Would have lost. His presence, the trust he has earned from his teammates, make it more bearable to face a team on the brink.

Green told his teammates before the game and reminded them once more in the fourth quarter. They anticipated an opponent coming hard with shoulders and elbows.

“We did,” Green said. “I don’t think we played very well. We can play a lot better. 

“But I told the guys before the fourth, just get out of here with a win. It’s the playoffs. It don’t matter how it looks sometimes.”

RELATED: Twitter reacts to clutch Steph, Draymond plays late in Game 3

Like Prince on stage or Mr. October in the World Series, Draymond somehow reaches a level in the playoffs that shames his regular season. Ignore the numbers: six points, 10 assists, five rebounds, two steals and one block. Watch him in the clutch, where nobody’s numbers seem to matter.

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