Denver Nuggets: Jerami Grant the “other guy” Jokic and Murray need

The Denver Nuggets live and die by their dynamic duo, but they are elevated by the one player who doesn’t make them compromised at either end.

Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray are all the rage for the Denver Nuggets in the NBA playoffs, but Jerami Grant managed to nudge his way into the spotlight, if only for a do-or-die Game 3 against the Los Angeles Lakers. His playoff-career-high 26 points and all-encompassing defensive effort helped make the Western Conference Finals a 2-1 affair with a 114-106 victory over the Lakers.

Grant’s arrival via the OKC Thunder last summer flew under a radar more concerned with bigger names. But it was a quality addition to a Nuggets team coming off its first playoff trip in six years and their first second-round appearance since 2009.

Getting him out of OKC required only a first-round pick. In return, Denver received a high-energy athletic forward, the type Mike Malone could use to guard everyone from wings like Kawhi Leonard and Brandon Ingram to bigger bodies like Anthony Davis and Kevin Love.

No matter the matchup in these playoffs, Grant has been called upon to stifle the opposition’s best. That was Donovan Mitchell in the first round. Kawhi in the conference semis. LA’s terrifying twosome of LeBron James and Anthony Davis have faced him just under 92 total possessions so far in this series and are a combined 11-of-24.

“I like Jerami Grant guarding Anthony Davis,” Malone said after Game 3. “I like Jerami Grant guarding LeBron James.”

LeBron has long been merciless in hunting switches. Getting facetime with Jokic or Murray is the first step towards breaking down the defense. Grant has given the necessary effort to ensure Denver’s best defensive option for James remains in front of him. In this instance, doing so resulted in a badly-missed jumper.

Grant was active in transition throughout the night, accounting for six of the Nuggets’ 10 fastbreak points while earning several trips to the free-throw line via that same method.

Denver’s pace has been second-to-last in both the regular and postseason, but they can’t help but get out on the break with a man as agile as Grant leading them on. It’s a markedly different dimension compared to what a 35-year-old Paul Millsap brings but provides an ideal way to generate quality looks before LA can set its top-ranked defense.

Nearly all of the Denver Nuggets’ offensive possessions runs through Jokic or Murray. That requires their surrounding teammates to figure out where they fit alongside a duo operating at the highest level.

Grant’s improved 3-point stroke — over 38.0 percent the last two seasons — has opened his offensive potential to space outside the dunker spot. Though he’s regressed to just 33.3 percent during these playoffs, he continues to fire (4.8 a game) to command defensive attention after moving up to play small forward for 87.0 percent of his playoff minutes.

Drifting out beyond the perimeter hasn’t just gotten Grant comfortable beyond the arc but has forced him to learn how to penetrate it when appropriate. There are no complex showcases of ballhandling mastery. Just a lack of thought on the catch that immediately propels him to the basket.

If the alternative is letting either Murray or Jokic build a rhythm, the Lakers will force Grant to beat them off the dribble every time.

“I knew I was going to be aggressive,” Grant told Ernie Johnson and Co. on TNT postgame. “I passed a couple (of) shots up in Game 2 that I knew I should’ve shot. I knew I had to be aggressive, just make them guard me so I could open it up for Jokic and Jamal.”

The boxscore will tell you that Grant’s performance only helped the Nuggets so much as a minus-8 in over 33 minutes. He was a plus-2 through the first three quarters before LA whittled a fourth-quarter lead as high as 20 to just three. Denver was outscored 31-21 in a frame where Grant never sat.

Gary Harris, Torrey Craig and Michael Porter Jr. are all quality rotation pieces Denver has placed around its two stars. But whatever prowess they bring to one end is sorely lacking at the other.

Grant is the only Nugget — along with maybe Millsap — whose contributions to the cause come through at both ends of the floor. The range his defense covers has been put to the test all postseason along and will continue to be challenged against two of the game’s best players.

In Game 3, that came with an added scoring punch that went a long way in helping the Denver Nuggets back into this series.