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Jamal Murray of the Denver Nuggets reacts after making a triple against the Utah Jazz during the second half of an NBA basketball first-round playoff game on Sunday, Aug.30, 2020, in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. (AP Photo / Ashley Landis)
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Florida – The Jamal Murray-Donovan Mitchell duel will be resolved in Game 7 on the bubble.
Murray extended his torrid streak with 50 more points, leading the Denver Nuggets to a 119-107 victory over the Utah Jazz on Sunday night.
Murray had his second 50-point game of the series to equal Mitchell, who finished with 44 in it. No player has had more in an entire postseason.
They will try one more time Tuesday night, and the winner will advance to face the Los Angeles Clippers.
The Clippers finished off the Dallas Mavericks in six games on the same court a few hours earlier.
Denver is trying to become the 12th team to rebound from a 3-1 deficit to win a series and the first since 2016, when the Cleveland Cavaliers completed the only such comeback that came in the NBA Finals.
The Nuggets won the first game, but the Jazz won the next three games and were in good shape to finish it in Game 5, with a 15-point lead in the third quarter.
Murray led the charge back in that game, finishing with 42 points, and then was a fiery 17 of 24 in Game 6, going 9 of 12 behind the 3-point arc.
Mitchell also hit nine 3s and increased the NBA’s highest scoring average in these playoffs by 37.6 points per game.
In the fourth quarter alone, Murray outscored Mitchell 21-17, which helped prevent the Jazz from getting close enough to have a real shot at finishing the series.
Murray had a little more help, with Nikola Jokic scoring 22 points and Jerami Grant adding 18.
Mike Conley had 21 points for the Jazz, but Rudy Gobert and Jordan Clarkson were only limited to 11.
A seventh game between the third-seeded Nuggets and the No. 6 Jazz seems appropriate. Although Denver won all three meetings during the regular season, the overall margin was just 11 points.
The Jazz came into the day by beating all teams in the postseason in field goal percentage and 3-point percentage, and ranking third in scoring with 121.8 points per game. And they soon seemed like they were going to overshadow all those numbers.
The Nuggets started 5-for-6, but were only trying to keep up when the Jazz made their first seven shots. Conley hit a 3 from the corner as he fell to beat the shot clock and then hit one, keeping Utah leveling possessions when Denver defended well.
But the Jazz left a lot of points on the board by going 3 of 9 on free throws, so their lead was just six. Murray then heated up on his way to a 14-point second quarter and Utah was just 4-of-16 as the Nuggets rose to a 10-point lead before taking a 61-56 lead in the locker room.
TIP-INS
Nuggets: Gary Harris had his first action of the series after recovering from a muscle strain in his right hip. He finished with four points. … Torrey Craig walked off the floor with a towel covering her face after being hit while fighting for rebounding position in the third quarter, but remained in the game after the previous play was under review.
Jazz: Utah finished 18 of 36 (50%) from 3-point range. … Georges Niang scored 10 points.
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