David Adelman is officially 2-0. The Denver Nuggets weren’t perfect but Nikola Jokic notched another triple double and Aaron Gordon played one of his best games of the season to help Denver overcome the Memphis Grizzlies. It took all forty-eight minutes but the Nuggets completed a comeback in the fourth quarter to get one of their biggest wins of the year. Denver clinches a playoff spot on a 117-109 win in Ball Arena.

The Nuggets played good defense to open the game while Jamal Murray, in his return to the lineup, got to the free throw line to get a small lead. Memphis & Morant responded with three pointers while Denver’s offense went cold. The Grizzlies went on a run and got up by eight to force a Nuggets timeout. It didn’t reignite Denver’s shooting by any means and they stayed trailing double digits halfway through the quarter. Jokic wasn’t involved in the offense and the team kept settling for jumpers. Eventually Denver got out and ran to get the lead back under ten with the quarter winding down. Peyton Watson had a huge dunk to highlight a solid close to the quarter for the Nuggets but after one they still trailed 35-28.

Murray got an and-one to open the second but that was the only points the Nuggets got for the first three minutes of the quarter. Memphis kept hitting threes while Denver couldn’t buy a basket. The lead went back to double digits which brought Nikola back into the game but he continued to be cold from the floor. He still didn’t have a field goal halfway through the second quarter. An 8-0 run by Memphis put them up fifteen. After that the Nuggets started running the floor and cut into the lead a bit. They got back within six after a Jokic and-one and kept it right there until half. Denver headed to the locker room trailing 59-53.

Denver kept working down the lead to open the second half, they got within two points but then the Grizzlies went on a run to go back up by ten. The Nuggets stopped the bleeding there, except when they got hit in the face like Michael Porter Jr. (no foul call). Gordon carried the Nuggets offense for a bit and got them back withing five with about five minutes to go. They got it down to three but then seemed to get stuck there. Finally Russell Westbrook hit a three to tie the game with just under three minutes to go. Memphis scored five straight after that but Westbrook responded by knocking down free throws. At the end of the third the Nuggets trailed 95-92.

The Nuggets kept close to open the fourth but Scotty Pippen Jr. kept getting foul calls. After they tied it at 97 Memphis went on a 6-0 run. That brough Jokic back into the game and Denver stayed within a couple baskets of the Grizzlies. The Nuggets flat out couldn’t get a call and that started to lead to some frustration. They hung tough though, Jokic got another triple double and with four minutes left Denver trailed by one. They kept coming, a Murray mid range fadeaway gave the Nuggets the lead with just under three minutes to go. He kept pushing and the Grizzlies started to run out of gas. Denver pushed the lead up to eight with just over a minute to go. They held that lead to the buzzer and completed the comeback to win 117-109.