National Basketball Association

3 Takeaways From Nuggets-Jazz

Updated Aug. 24, 2020 3:05 p.m. ET

A day of incredible playoff scoring in the NBA was capped by an epic duel, as Donovan Mitchell and the Utah Jazz emerged victorious 129-127 over the 3-seed Denver Nuggets.

Here are the 3 biggest takeaways from Sunday's fourth and final Game 4.

1. Donovan Mitchell wants you to know he runs this ... place

The Jazz needed every one of Mitchell's 51 points — especially the clutch 3-pointer he hit with less than a minute to play and Utah up by 1.

If you look closely, you can see Mitchell mouthing a touch of trash talk that wasn't quite safe for work following his big-time bomb.

It was Mitchell's second 50-point game of the postseason, joining Michael Jordan and Isiah Thomas as the only players since the merger with multiple 50-point games in a single series.

Yet when informed of his milestone, Mitchell demurred, pointing out that he hasn't yet achieved the team success of AI and the GOAT.

2. Murray + Mitchell = history

On the other side, Denver's Jamal Murray poured in 50 points of his own, combining with Mitchell to do something no pair of opponents had ever done before in the playoffs.

Murray reached the 50-point mark with a last-second 3-pointer — a triple that, much like Joel Embiid's final shot in Philly's loss to the Celtics, was more meaningful for gamblers than it was for the final score.

3. Nikola Jokic gets a workout in

The Denver big man had a solid enough game if you look at the box score, tallying 29 points, 7 rebounds, and 6 assists. But as Nuggets coach Mike Malone acknowledged postgame, Jokic didn't have much of an impact in Game 4.

He did appear to attempt a pull-up after a dunk on Rudy Gobert, however, which had the Internet laughing.

In reality, Jokic seems to be trying to avoid landing on Gobert, which is the right thing to do. But since when has the truth gotten in the way of a joke?