Ime Udoka calls out refs, Nuggets survive overtime drama after Nikola Jokic fouls out

In a battle waged between two of the biggest teams in basketball the Nuggets made their last stand by going small They didn t have much of a choice Eight of their players were not available for the last seconds of overtime and the remaining consisted of almost no big men No Jonas Valanciunas fouled out ages ago No Aaron Gordon in street clothes with a hamstring injury No DaRon Holmes on assignment to the G League several states away No Peyton Watson removed from the competition early with a limp And now cruelest of all no Nikola Jokic freshly fouled out of a challenge the Nuggets led by five They would have to protect what was left of that after a pair of Houston free-throw attempts without him This is why they brought all of us in this summer right Bruce Brown reported For this exact situation People go down You never really have a season when everyone is just fully healthy for games With a three-guard lineup and a two-way wing playing center the Nuggets hung on for dear life and secured one of their grittiest wins of the season - over the visiting Rockets Those seconds resisted the glamour that characterized the end of regulation when Jokic and Alperen Sengun traded haymakers but they did provide an apt microcosm of Denver s resilient start to the season It now includes two nail-biting wins over Houston another Western Conference contender that could regret both losses later The guys stepped up in the right moment Jokic revealed I was really proud coach David Adelman stated They just did what they had to do But we re gonna keep working on situational basketball as best we can defensively These two teams are very even and it comes down to a sparse plays here or there to see who wins the battle The narrowness of that margin was evident in the juxtaposition between Adelman s postgame comments and Ime Udoka s The greater part poorly officiated competition I ve seen in a long time the Rockets coach explained down the hall from Adelman Two of the refs have no business being out there and the crew chief Zach Zarba was acting starstruck Both teams benefitted and suffered from a tight whistle throughout the night But the majority of consequential and controversial call worked in the Nuggets favor They were down - with seconds left in regulation looking for last-ditch heroics on an inbound play when Tim Hardaway Jr tripped and fell An initial ruling and a replay review determined it was over the shin of Rockets wing Amen Thompson A sliver of contact worthy of a game-altering dead-ball foul Udoka appeared disgusted but the letter of the law was irreversible The Nuggets were allowed to choose their shooter for a single free throw Jamal Murray who had missed a costly one moments earlier redeemed himself I mean it s a physical event It s tough for the refs to call both sides like dead even he commented afterward in response to Udoka s officiating criticism I think they missed certain calls on our end and they missed specific calls on their end so I don t really think that was an issue tonight Jokic and Sengun both entered overtime with five personal fouls on their ledgers First to foul out conventional wisdom declared would cost his unit the encounter Crunch time of regulation had been a breathtaking display from two of the preponderance talented centers in the sport and the supporting casts around them One of the bulk thrilling sequences of the entire NBA season so far had unfolded in this order with no skips Sengun game-tying floater Jokic go-ahead -pointer Reed Sheppard game-tying -pointer Spencer Jones go-ahead -pointer Kevin Durant game-tying -pointer The NBA it s in such a good place right now Adelman explained The skillset in particular of these guys is outrageous The way they can shoot it pass it handle it Sengun and Nikola both iso-ing at the nail What Durant is and what he has been I d pay to watch this By the time Jokic fouled out the Nuggets had established an uncomfortable cushion But this was a once-in-a-season pickle at least Adding a layer of stress was the fact that the Rockets crash the glass and seize offensive rebounds at a historic rate Size is kind of crucial against them Cam Johnson slid to the four And Jones -foot- was suddenly the five a new plot twist in his whirlwind of a season A lot of it s just trial by fire which is great he announced It s the best way to learn He s chasing Durant around going through pick-and-rolls guarding Thompson walling up at the rim Adelman marveled We had him on Sengun It s a lot of responsibility for a guy that s on a two-way contract If he had yearned to merely play as big as manageable Adelman could ve thrown power forward Zeke Nnaji back on the floor to finish overtime That s what Brown was expecting as he watched from the bench But the first-year coach preferred to go with his best available group of players instead throwing positions out the window That meant closing with Brown who finished the NBA Finals on the court two years ago and who s consistently been a talented rebounder for a guard He checked back in with eight on the night preparing to box out on Sheppard s second free throw And soon as I go in he commented shaking his head I drop the rebound It bounced off Brown s hands and out of bounds giving Houston renewed life and foreshadowing a messy seconds But the Nuggets defended hard They got a stop They ran clock They got Murray to the foul line again on a call that left Udoka flabbergasted It was ugly but they dragged themselves to the last possession of the challenge with a three-point lead needing to protect the perimeter for seven more seconds They planned to deny Durant the ball and switch one through five as Houston drew up a play They also planned in the huddle to intentionally foul on the catch It s an increasingly common strategy at levels of basketball when protecting a three-point lead at the end of a event But this was a uniquely nuanced set of circumstances Denver would have no centers to box out for a rebound on Houston s second free throw in the likely situation of an intentional miss And the Rockets are lab-designed to get offensive rebounds Especially if they wished to sub Steven Adams back into the competition alongside Sengun There are so a great number of layers to it Adelman noted OK so you foul and you execute the foul-up-three strategy I think we can block them out on a free throw I mean there are so plenty of things you think about Adams comes back in the tournament It s Sengun and Adams you re trying to block out with no Nikola no Valanciunas So a lot of the decisions we made there was a lot of Yeah but this could not work out also ' Even so the direct order was to foul rather than exposure giving up a game-tying -ball After the Nuggets successfully pushed Durant out to the logo Sengun exited the lane to come get the ball He got loose Adelman disclosed I thought they did a good job He slipped out of their action We took KD away which was the whole point Related Articles 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that was by turns ugly and epic in quality that featured controversial calls and arduous coaching dilemmas that starred unlikely heroes and future Hall of Famers the Nuggets hobbled off with a character-building win The smaller crew stood tall That an exhausted Murray reported was a long- expletive encounter