3 keys in the Utah Jazz’s 115-110 loss to the Denver Nuggets

The Utah Jazz were without five of their rotational players, including three starters, and they still made the Denver Nuggets work really hard. In the end, though, the Jazz lost to the Nuggets, 115-110.

Here are three keys that contributed to the result:

• Nickeil Alexander-Walker played a season-high 39 minutes and 50 seconds, just 13 seconds shy of his career-high. Through that he played pretty impressively on both ends of the floor, putting up a season-high 27 points and going 5-of-10 from 3-point range. He also did a pretty good job of guarding at the perimeter and getting around screens to force guys into tougher mid-range shots. Problem is, the Nuggets made a lot of those.

But Alexander-Walker, much like the other Jazz players who were on the court with him on Saturday, does not have a lot of experience closing games in clutch situations. The Jazz weren’t able to get a really good look in the final moments of the game with a chance to tie, and Alexander-Walker had to take a deep 3 that came up short.

• Though Jamal Murray only took three 3-pointers and made just one of them, he went 12-of-16 from inside the arc. Murray and Nikola Jokic combined for 61 points against the Jazz, and Jokic added 14 assists to his 31-point night.

The Jazz threw a lot of defenders at Jokic but primarily had the services of Kelly Olynyk and rookie Walker Kessler. Jokic’s size and court vision were difficult for Olynyk to contend with. Kessler tried as much as possibly to deny Jokic the ball, but Jokic’s footwork and touch showed why he is a two-time MVP.

• The Jazz continue to struggle with turnovers and offensive execution late in games, and had it not been for some fumbled possessions as the game came to an end, they might have been able to pull this one out. But, to even be in the game against Murray, Jokic and the rest of the Nuggets was an impressive feat for the mostly-bench rotation that was deployed by the Jazz.

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