Every time you thought the Denver Nuggets had put away the Utah Jazz Thursday night, they came back to life like Freddy or Jason or Michael or any of your favorite horror movie killing machines. All we needed was a Jamie Lee Curtis scream and we were ready to go.
And the Jazz should have had one more life.
Quick run down. You thought the dagger was Arron Afflalo’s three with 11 seconds left that put the Nuggets up four (102-98). Especially after Raja Bell missed a rushed three for the Jazz and Andrei Kirilenko fouled Raymond Felton. He hit one of two with 5 seconds left, and now the Nuggets up 5. But then Devin Harris hits quick three and there are 1.2 seconds left.
Kenyon Martin just has to inbound the ball — and he threw it right to Kirilenko who was guarding the inbound pass. The startled Kirilenko was feet from the basket, rushed a shot…
And airballed the tying layup.
Except the Jazz should have had another shot. Look at the photo with this story, a screen shot from a split second after Martin inbounded the ball to Kirilenko. Martin reaches out and touches the ball from out of bounds. That is a violation. Should have been Jazz ball out of bounds. Jazz blog SLC Dunk noticed it first and Tom Ziller of SB Nation confirmed with the NBA. The referees missed the call.
Then again, ball out of bounds with a second or so on the clock means a catch-and-shoot likely contested shot. Unless the Nuggets fall asleep on the alley-oop inbounds.
But really, the best shot the Jazz had at tying that game was the one Kirilenko airballed.
