James Harden, Donovan Mitchell make clutch plays, Nuggets cough up late lead to Cavs

Bennett Durando, The Denver Post on Feb 10, 2026

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The newest Cavalier and the face of Cleveland’s franchise broke Denver hearts at the last minute.

James Harden buried an improbable game-tying 3-pointer with a hand in his face and 31.4 seconds left, then Donovan Mitchell barreled into Jamal Murray to draw a blocking foul with 0.9 seconds to go, putting him at the line for a pair of decisive free throws. The result was a 119-117 Nuggets loss Monday at Ball Arena — their fourth defeat in the last five games. One contest remains before they go their separate ways for the All-Star break.

Mitchell went for 32 points and 10 assists on 23 shot attempts. Harden, in his second game since the Clippers traded him to Cleveland, added 22 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists.

The Nuggets (34-20) got a triple-double from Nikola Jokic and a double-double from Jamal Murray, but their 13-of-40 outside shooting night as a team was too much to overcome in an ending that came down to clutch shooting. They generated an open 3-point look for Tim Hardaway Jr. with 10 seconds left on a night when role players buoyed them, but it was off the mark.

Playing through hip pain after a minor injury suffered Saturday in Chicago, Murray struggled with burst off the dribble early but was content to ease into the game as a setup man. He or Jokic assisted on 19 of Denver's 32 field goals in the first three quarters.

But Jokic was slinging high-risk passes ahead in transition and into tight windows in the halfcourt, costing him at times with six turnovers -- including one in the last minute while Denver was protecting a one-score lead. Murray was a steadier distributor, compiling his 11 assists with just one giveaway.

David Adelman experimented with an a atypical sub pattern for Jokic, rolling him out to start the second and fourth quarters with Cam Johnson at the four and shooters everywhere. Flanked by Strawther, Tim Hardaway Jr. and a recently slumping Jalen Pickett, the Nuggets more than doubled their lead in the first two minutes of the fourth. Pickett knocked down a timely 3-pointer to push the gap to 11, eliciting an especially enthusiastic response from the bench while the Cavs regrouped with a timeout.

Whenever they called one, it usually produced results. They went on a 10-0 run out of a second-quarter timeout after falling behind 11. They chipped away at the same deficit in the fourth, getting a boost from role player 3s and smelling blood when Adelman had to remove Jokic from the game for a breather. How long could he afford to keep the MVP center on the bench? A clutch 3-pointer from Christian Braun (20 points) and a crafty challenge by Adelman helped keep Cleveland at bay, barely. Jokic was back at the 3:24 mark with a 111-108 lead.

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