The lasting image from one of the most hectic Game 7 endings in NBA history was of two young guards embracing in mutual admiration.
Donovan Mitchell had collapsed to the floor, devastated, after Utah’s final 3-point attempt spun out of the cylinder as time expired, leaving Mitchell with only an 80-78 loss to show for his Herculean effort in the bubble: 36.3 points per game on 52% outside shooting in a seven-game saga. On the floor of the mostly empty gymnasium he remained, until Nuggets guard Jamal Murray found him there and helped him up. The two 23-year-olds had traded 50-point games in a memorable series. Murray comforted his opponent. In a sterile environment, it was a rare moment of warmth.
And what about the player who missed the shot?
“It’s hard to escape it,” he said Saturday. “You find that clip every now and then. Sometimes it comes across the phone. I don’t actively search it. I don’t want to bring up that memory too much. But at the same time, though, it’s something that I’ve thought about in workouts. I think about it when I’m having a tough day in a workout, missing a certain shot. I’m like, man, I’ve gotta make this because I might be in this situation again. I might get the opportunity again.”
The loneliest man in the gym that night will finally get that opportunity again Sunday in another Game 7 — against the same opponent. Murray and Mitchell are forever intertwined by that 2020 first-round playoff clash in the bubble, but 32-year-old point guard Mike Conley was Utah’s second-leading scorer, averaging 19.8 points in the series on 53% shooting from 3-point range. The only shot that’ll live forever was his last one: a pull-up three in transition that would have won the series and eliminated the Nuggets.
Now 36 and still chasing his first championship in Minnesota, Conley has been waiting for an opportunity like Sunday.
His Timberwolves against a similar Denver Nuggets core in another Game 7. How many times has he replayed the moment in his head over the last 48 hours, since Minnesota forced the series to a winner-take-all game?
“The last four years,” Conley said, “not the last 48 hours.”
It was one of the most crucial sequences of the Nuggets’ rise to power. This 2024 series is littered with the same characters. Nikola Jokic scored the eventual game-winning basket on a hook shot with 27.8 seconds left. Guarding him and contesting the shot was Rudy Gobert, who also plays for the Timberwolves now via a trade separate from the one that brought Conley to Minnesota.
The Jazz’s initial opportunity to tie or win the game was thwarted when Gary Harris picked Mitchell’s pocket with 10 seconds remaining. Murray dribbled the other direction and passed to Torrey Craig, who botched an ill-advised layup instead of holding onto the ball and playing keep-away to force a foul. Gobert rebounded the miss and fired an outlet pass to Conley, who had a clean look at the buzzer. In and out.
The Nuggets won another series and made the Western Conference Finals, establishing their potential as a legitimate contender for the first time under Michael Malone. Now they’re defending their championship in Sunday’s elimination showdown. The Conley shot is the difference between a 3-1 Game 7 résumé in the Jokic era and a 1-2 record. It’s the reason Denver, when asked about the source of its confidence entering a game this nerve-racking, can lean on experience. “Knowing that we’ve been there and done that,” Malone said Saturday. “And I think Game 7s, for some people, can maybe be a little bit too big for certain people. I don’t know. We’ll find out. But experience is a great teacher.”
Conley, meanwhile, fell to 0-4 in Game 7s after that shot. This will be his first since then.
“Man, I’ve replayed it a lot. Having an opportunity to win a Game 7 like that, not being able to make the shot was tough,” Conley said. “And now here we are in a similar situation where we get to play that same team, a lot of the same guys. So for me it’s been something I’ve been thinking about a long time. Hopefully this will turn out different.”
Conley is one of the most ubiquitous veterans in the NBA. When Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards was asked what the difference was between Minnesota’s Game 5 loss and Game 6 blowout win, he replied simply, “(Crap), we got Mike Conley back.” The 17th-year guard was named the NBA’s Teammate of the Year this month, an award that he also won in Utah. He’s been a 20-point-per-game scorer and an All-Star in his career. Now he’s a steady role player and glue guy. This is his 12th playoff appearance. He has only reached the conference finals once.
He knows time might be running out.
“I’ve thought about it every playoff game, because potentially this could be one chance to crack down the door and have a chance to win a championship,” he said. “Opportunities don’t come around like this. You don’t have it be so wide open like this that often. A lot of teams tend to always be at the top of the league. But right now I feel like it’s very much open for a lot of teams to make a run.”
By the end of Sunday, his dream could be as alive as it’s ever been, or it could face another heartbreaking setback. The Nuggets stand in the way. Conley is likely to play despite the right soleus muscle strain that sidelined him for Game 5. “I think all of us would agree that we’d do anything for Mike Conley,” teammate Karl-Anthony Towns said. That’s because Conley’s reputation is that he would do anything for his teammates. No shot he’s missing Game 7. It’s a matter of whether he makes or misses another shot.
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