A man without a driver’s license and without a tooth stood in the way of a historic NBA team’s date with destiny.
Like a hockey defenseman whose face is familiar with the warm embrace of a puck, Julian Strawther played through it. It was the fourth quarter of Game 6, and he had received contact to the head, sending his right incisor flying across the floor. Fortunately, it was a fake. When Strawther lost his baby tooth in that spot, the replacement never grew in. He keeps a prosthetic in the gap.
By the time his work was done, the pearly white was back in place.
“Thanks to the ball boys,” Strawther said. “They came through for me.”
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Is there a more appropriate metaphor for what the Nuggets have endured? Left to die without a head coach or general manager, then battered by the Clippers and Thunder, they’re somehow still playing — at least for one more game.
And was there a more random path to Game 7, a more unexpected figurehead for their survival, than Strawther and his Game 6 fireworks? On a memorable night in Denver, a 23-year-old guard who had played fewer than 100 minutes since the start of March suddenly wreaked havoc on an NBA playoff series that belongs among the classics.
To earn such a lofty status, a few benchmarks must be met. The tropes that make for great theater. The character archetypes, such as the unlikely hero.
Strawther takes his bow. He was drafted 29th overall by Denver in 2023. He appeared in 50 games as a rookie. He represented the bottom of the rotation as a sophomore. And after spraining his left knee on March 2, he went about his recovery process under the assumption that he would not be a part of Denver’s playoff rotation, he told The Denver Post.
“That’s where my mind was at,” Strawther said. “And the staff was transparent with me: ‘We may or may not need you to stay ready.’
“The timing of that injury was super-tough, understanding that I would be cleared to play either with a game left or two in the regular season. Barely any time to ramp up. So my main thing was just trying to battle back.”
The Nuggets were tied at 80 when Strawther erupted. He scored eight of their points during a swift 10-0 run at the end of the third quarter, burying two momentous 3-pointers and breaking out his recently introduced “thumbs down” celebration after the second. As he hopped back toward the defensive end, he found himself face-to-face with Damian Massey, Watson’s close friend and manager, who was seated courtside. The two shared an emphatic high-five.
“We go to the gym all the time at night, Peyton, Julian and Michael Porter,” Massey said. “So I see the work these guys put in and how well they shoot.”
Strawther scored all 15 of his points during a 10-minute window of game time, shooting 3 for 4 outside the arc. It was his first double-digit scoring game since Feb. 27 and his 16th game in the NBA with 15 or more points.
“I thought he held water defensively, too. That was a big deal,” interim coach David Adelman said. “You want to keep an offensive player out there, but they have to be able to handle their own on the other end. And he did. We didn’t have to change schematically, defensively, because he sat down, moved his feet and guarded.”
That was always the snafu with Strawther’s potential playoff minutes. He was deficient as a one-on-one defender; inconsistent as a bench scorer. If he was going to be viable for high-leverage playing time despite his limitations, the Nuggets would have to trust that his offense would show up.
But in this matchup, they simply haven’t had much of a choice. Oklahoma City’s depth has slowly caught up with Adelman throughout the series, culminating with a pair of fourth-quarter comebacks leading into Game 6. Thunder coach Mark Daigneault has been abundantly transparent about his intention to rotate fresh legs onto Denver’s increasingly exhausted star players.
So Adelman has tried to find ways to play eight. Mostly to no avail.
“Game 4, their role players make 3s. Game 5, (Lu) Dort makes 3s,” Adelman said. “Tonight, we had a guy step up.”
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“It was just really good to see him catch that rhythm, show that emotion and get everybody going,” Jamal Murray said. “I really like even when (Oklahoma City) kind of came back or had a run, his energy really set the tone for us.”
While he rehabbed, Strawther also continued to procrastinate in his free time. He has never obtained a driver’s license, from his hometown of Las Vegas to college at Gonzaga to adult life in Denver. He often relies on Watson to chauffeur him to and from the airport when the Nuggets have a road trip.
They’ll probably carpool together on Saturday, when the team flies back to Oklahoma City one more time.
“I should’ve worked on that,” Strawther admitted to The Post about his driving education.
“I’m gonna try to tap in on that whenever the season’s over. Hopefully, end of June.”
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Originally Published: May 16, 2025 at 1:58 AM MDT
