Jamal Murray’s missed free throw seals another Nuggets collapse

On a night Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray missed so many shots, the Blue Arrow ended it with one final miss from the free throw line as the Denver Nuggets came up short 115-114 against the Los Angeles Clippers.

It was the first game out of the All-Star Break for Denver, but it mirrored so many of the issues the Nuggets had in the first half of the season. The Nuggets committed 17 turnovers, didn’t close out quarters, made huge mental mistakes in the clutch, and missed an important free throw at the line.

Denver dropped to 14-14 in games within five points during the final five minutes. Their NET rating in those contests is among the worst in the NBA, next to many teams who will be selecting in the lottery. For a team that was once known as clutch merchants behind the unflappable Jokic and the big-shot-making Murray, it’s a huge turn and a massive red flag for the group.

Still, Murray was that guy for most of the ending on Thursday.

“(Jamal Murray) did his job late. That’s what he’s supposed to do,” David Adelman said “He kept us in the game, but what got us behind in this game again was not being disciplined enough defensively.”

The Nuggets extended to a 10-point lead in the third quarter, which evaporated before the fourth even began. Much like the team’s sorry 17-7 ending to the first quarter, the Nuggets ended the third with a 14-3 Clippers run. Going into the fourth, the lead was lost but so was the momentum, as Jokic and Murray had combined to hit just seven for their 26 shots to that point.

Jamal and Joker's shooting first three quarters tonight… they missed SO MANY easy ones. pic.twitter.com/x7LK2dh7gw

— Jake Shapiro (@Shapalicious) February 20, 2026

Denver was led by Cameron Johnson and Julian Strawther each scoring 18 points and Bruce Brown’s season-high of 19. When the Nuggets found themselves down early in the fourth quarter Jonas Valanciunas turned a small scuffle into some positive juice for the Nuggets, retaking the lead just after a technical free throw then holding onto it deep into the fourth.

But the Clippers had plenty of chances to fight back in a fourth quarter where the teams combined to shoot 41 free throws. Los Angeles was both better from the stripe at 83% to Denver’s 74% and utilized the slower pace to bother the Nuggets with ball pressure, which they struggled to break — a story as old as three seasons now.

But even after the Nuggets gave up the lead, they fought, and finally Joker and Jamal showed up on the scoreboard. The two combined for 25 points on 7-of-11 shooting during the fourth quarter. On his 31st birthday, Jokic made two of the bigger shots of tthrewhe game, going back-to-back over former All-Defensive team center Brook Lopez to end a Clippers 10-2 run.

But in that stretch just before was one of the issues of the night — mental errors. After one of Jokic’s six misses from deep in the game, he committed a fifth foul on Bennedict Mathurin to slow down a break. It was called a take foul, and the Clippers got a three-point possession out of it, extending their lead to five on a night Mathurin tied a career high with 38 points. It also limited Jokic’s defense for the final two minutes of the game.

The Nuggets had the ball with 35 seconds left coming out of a timeout and down by two, the plan was to try to get two possessions before the buzzer sounded. One to tie, then one to take the lead with a stop. Denver never got that far, as Jokic forced up a quick layup and the Clippers got the ball with a six second difference between shot and game clock. So a tie was still on the board with a stop.

Tim Hardaway Jr. committed a giant gaffe via a foul.

“Tim immediately knew. I mean, that’s a situation we’ve talked about. He’s been in that situation a million times,” Adelman said. “He immediately after the game was apologizing for that.”

So down by four now, the Nuggets needed magic and that’s where Murray stepped in for a quick driving dunk on Lopez. Then a near steal meant a Clipper timeout and a tough inbound for the home team.

But when the Nuggets now needed the foul game Jokic couldn’t be the one to issue it, leading to another big mistake where Lopez got wide open for a dunk to make it a four-point game.

Murray came back down and buried a three off a sideline play. But now the Nuggets were without timeouts and down three after more Clippers hits from the line. So Murray got the ball with about 10 seconds left and the Nuggets didn’t seem to have much of a plan. Somehow he got bailed out by a foul call with 0.9 seconds left giving him three free throws, needing all of them, to tie.

Thursday’s spot echoed a situation that happened twice last month against the Pistons, when Murray got to the line twice for a trio of free throws needing all of them and he only hit a combined three.

Murray looked into the Intuit Dome’s Wall and hit one. Then he hit two.

And then there was a stop, Adelman called for subs, going for some defense with a made free throw to get the game into overtime. The coach put not just Brown and Christian Braun out there to defend less than a second of time with a full court heave needed — he also sent out Valanciunas. The center, playing alongside Jokic, would only be in there if Adelman expected a miss and wanted extra size for the rebound.

Stoppage, shaken confidence or another choke job — Murray missed the free throw and the Nuggets lost.

What’s next for the Nuggets?

The Nuggets continue a three-game road trip out of the All-Star Break with a contest in Portland on Friday then it’s another quick turnaround for a Sunday afternoon national TV game against Golden State.

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