By now, the numbers are but an ancient rune, just a few weeks, but a world of difference separating this version of Christian Braun from his 23-year-old self.
19:46.
They sat, a stark reminder, on the background of Braun’s phone in Los Angeles after the Nuggets dropped Game 6 to the Clippers. The total amount of game clock that he spent on the floor in a crushing Game 7 elimination last year against Minnesota. 19 minutes and 46 seconds. Five points. Yanked for ex-Nugget Kentavious Caldwell-Pope for a crucial fourth-quarter stretch. Frustration.
But a year around the sun brought him back to another Game 7, a campaign for a Most Improved Player behind him despite little signs of age in his youthful face, and forward Peyton Watson imparted a few positive affirmations before Saturday’s contest.
“Just telling him that, it’s gonna be a big game for him,” Watson recalled Saturday night to The Denver Post. “And that — how much I know he’s a gamer. And that he is that guy, and we needed him to step up big.
“And he did.”
For an entire series, Braun and Clippers star James Harden were at each other’s throats. Braun assumed the challenge of guarding a near-unguardable guard, thrust into the role of de facto point-of-attack defender after Caldwell-Pope’s offseason departure. Harden got in Braun’s face in Game 4, built-up frustration releasing after a take foul. Underlying tension continued to simmer in Game 7, Braun bumping chests with Harden in picking him up full-court after a leak-out in the first quarter.
And this time, this Game 7, Braun proved himself irreplaceable, as he provided near-constant shots of adrenaline and stifled the Clippers’ star to a grand total of seven points in Denver’s 120-101 closeout win.
“I wanted to be more,” Braun said of last year’s loss to the Timberwolves. “And everybody wants to play more. But I just thought that in that game, I felt like I was playing well and wanted to play more minutes.
“And everybody wants that, everybody in the league wants that, and I got that,” he continued, referencing the Clippers’ closeout. “That’s exactly what I wanted, and those guys trusted me — they have all year — but they trusted me in that moment. So, this is the exact moment I was looking for.”
The moments piled up on Saturday. He gave the Nuggets some early life on a flurry of cuts as offensive engines Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray sputtered to an 0-of-9 start. He locked Harden up on a final Clippers possession at the end of the quarter, aided by a Murray double-team. He hit two big third-quarter 3s as the Nuggets blitzed the Clippers out of the break, he and Russell Westbrook nailing timely shots and buoying Ball Arena’s crowd with sheer effervescence in the process.
Braun’s shot has been a season-long topic of discussion in his development. He came into Saturday shooting 25% from 3 against the Clippers and was 1 of 7 in Game 4.
Jokic, though, loved that 1 of 7. That’s the best thing, he recalled telling Braun. He has encouraged confidence in outside looks from Braun all season.
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The stats, though, also showed 3 of 5 from deep and 21 points Saturday, part of a supplemental cast of Nuggets that shouldered a massive load with Jokic and Murray struggling early. And Braun will be equally important on both ends against the top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder. His assignment: a player in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander who Jokic called “unguardable, basically.”
Braun’s proven, at least, that he deserves the chance.
“He’s aggressive, he’s annoying, and he knows what to do,” Jokic said. “And he accepts the role because he’s a winner.”
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