The Denver Nuggets closed out their road trip by playing their third game in four days that also happened to be an 11AM mountain time tip and against the defending champion Boston Celtics. The beginning of the game certainly looked like one stacked against the Nuggets favor with Jaylen Brown getting whatever he wanted and Boston building a big lead. The Nuggets fought back in the second half behind Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic and got within a bucket in the final minute of the game but couldn’t seal the deal. Ultimately they fall 110-103 to the Celtics.

The teams traded baskets to start the game and Denver looked like a road team that was asked to wake up early. Jokic also looked like he was bothered by some sort of lower body injury and was laboring up and down the court. It didn’t stop him from scoring though and the Nuggets stayed within a basket or two as the quarter progressed. Both teams went cold about midway through the first. The Celtics went on a mini-run to get up seven and Michael Malone called timeout. That didn’t stop the Nuggets from continuing to play sluggish and sloppy so Boston’s lead creeped up to double digits. Outside of Jokic there wasn’t any offense for Denver which kept them down by about a dozen. At the end of the first quarter the score was 32-20 Boston.

The Nuggets opened the second with their bench group who were hunting threes and not making them. They looked disinterested at times while the Boston lead grew. The Celtics did not struggle to hit their outside shots and when Nikola checked back in the Nuggets trailed by fifteen. Denver continued to look like a team that forgot they had an early game and couldn’t close the gap on Boston. Their game was sloppy and Christian Braun was the only Nugget other than Nikola doing anything. They finally got some momentum towards the end of the quarter and went on an 8-0 run the bring themselves within eleven. At the end of the half the Nuggets trailed 61-48.

Denver was sloppy to start but Jamal Murray finally started to get some points to open the second half to keep the game from going into early blowout territory. That sparked a run that was also assisted with Russell Westbrook hitting some threes and Denver pulled back within eleven. Boston regained control after that and didn’t let the Nuggets get closer. The game stayed in that range when it hit the midway point of the third. Jayson Tatum was starting to find his offense and giving the Nuggets some trouble. With about four minutes to go in the quarter Julian Strawther went down holding his left leg and immediately went back to the locker room, he did not return to the game. Tatum’s offense waned again but that didn’t stop him from taking shots and Denver mounted another rally. They went on a 10-0 run right at the end of the quarter and headed into the fourth trailing 83-77.

The Celtics started the fourth with some renewed energy but after a Nuggets timeout Denver responded and kept it as a close game. It went back and forth, Boston got their crowd back into it and pushed the lead back up to ten before Jokic checked back in the game. Murray continued to get buckets for the Nuggets but he wasn’t getting much help. Luckily Boston went cold and Denver started closing in again. They got it back to four but couldn’t seem to get over that hump. Past the halfway point of the fourth the teams started trading three pointers for a bit with the lead hovering around five. Then both teams went cold with time starting to run out on the Nuggets. They trailed by three with just over a minute to go but sloppiness doomed them. They gave up two offensive rebounds and then turned the ball over on the next possession to let Boston get back up seven. Too little too late for Denver and they ultimately end up losing 110-103.