Peyton Watson called DeAndre Jordan over to his locker-room cubicle while the Nuggets were waiting. Momentarily, coach Michael Malone would enter for the usual postgame mini-speech routine. But Watson was still processing his feeling of deja vu in the meantime.
Almost everything was the same. The lack of a timeout; the live-ball scramble to get back on defense. The opponent. The player holding the ball. The direction he went to create a shot.
It was even the same end of the court at Ball Arena.
Just not the same arm. Nor the same result.
“Around this time last year,” Watson recalled to Jordan, stating the obvious, “Shai hit a game-winner on me.“
On Dec. 16, 2023, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s jump shot barely snuck over the outstretched left arm of Watson and found the bottom of the net with 0.9 seconds left, giving the upstart but ascending Thunder a 118-117 win in Denver. On Nov. 6, 2024, Gilgeous-Alexander drove left and beat his man again. This time, he encountered the right arm of Watson, who rotated over in weak-side help defense after picking up Chet Holmgren in the dunker spot.
Watson reached for the rafters of Ball Arena to block SGA’s layup attempt at the buzzer, preserving a 124-122 Nuggets win — their most impressive of the season so far because they are no longer considered the juggernaut in this matchup. The loss was Oklahoma City’s first of the season.
“He flipped it up there so high, I had no idea I was going to be able to get to it,” Watson said after arguably his finest moment yet in a three-year career. “But I kind of just timed it up perfect and got my fingertips on it. That was enough to alter it.”
In his mind, the defensive heroics represented redemption for not doing enough to stop Gilgeous-Alexander’s game-winner 11 months ago — even though Gilgeous-Alexander is a first-team All-NBA point guard and Watson is a bench player on a rookie deal.
“I never stop thinking about it. I never, ever stop thinking about it,” Watson said late Wednesday night. “I’m one of those guys who prides myself on: Any late-shot-clock, end-of-quarter, end-of-game situation, I’m not the guy to really go at. … But he got the best of me that time. He’s an amazing player. One of the frontrunners in the league for MVP. So he’s all that for a reason, bro. He’s nice.”
But this was also redemption in a more immediate sense. The reason Oklahoma City had an opportunity to force overtime in the first place? Watson had just fumbled both foul shots with 16 seconds left and a chance to ice the game. “Super nerve-racking,” he admitted afterward. “Should have made my free throws.”
“But on the other end, doesn’t drop his head,” Malone said. “Isn’t in his feelings. He makes a play at the rim against one of the favorites for MVP in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. … That’s what you love about Peyton Watson.”
That Watson was even on the floor for the climax of the game was a testament to how improbable Denver’s comeback was. The 22-year-old forward was forced to replace an injured Aaron Gordon in the starting lineup. Russell Westbrook was already replacing an injured Jamal Murray. Only two weeks earlier, the Nuggets’ bench had combined to shoot 7-for-28 as Oklahoma City spoiled their season opener. Depth was the difference.
The Nuggets overcame that potential talent gap with sheer grit and resilience in the rematch. Watson blocked three shots. Christian Braun, still new to the usual starting lineup, clamped Gilgeous-Alexander in the second half (3 of 10 from the field with four turnovers). Westbrook led all scorers (29 on 15 shots) despite eight players logging more minutes than he did. Julian Strawther made up for a poor shooting night by amassing six assists and five rebounds.
And Malone coached for a win as if his life depended on it. His rotation went only eight deep, stopping at 10 minutes of Zeke Nnaji. He turned on Michael Porter Jr.’s water during the second half by emphasizing play-calls to free up the sharpshooter using more off-ball screens. He mixed up defensive tactics, occasionally cross-matching Watson against the lankier Holmgren while hiding Nikola Jokic on Alex Caruso. (Jokic made eight deflections and was far more effective defensively than opening night, when Holmgren torched him.) He went to a zone early in the game to deter Oklahoma City’s many drivers from pummeling the rim.
“We put that in, uh, today,” Braun said.
And for the second consecutive game in clutch time, Malone used a closing lineup antithetical to his instincts: not because it lacked a true point guard, but because it featured three players on rookie contracts.
The lineup — Braun, Strawther, Porter, Watson and Jokic — has outscored opponents 68-44 this season, with 15 assists on 20 made shots, five steals and four blocks in 20 minutes of playing time.
Westbrook still checked back in for his defense at the tail end. Malone said the 35-year-old has been a “rock star” at that end, even on nights when his offense has been insufficient. On Monday, Westbrook glued himself to RJ Barrett and provided a game-saving contest of a 3-point attempt at the buzzer. Two days later, a young teammate had his back when Gilgeous-Alexander blew by as time dwindled.
“Every game means a lot to me. … I’m not waiting until the playoffs to take it as serious as possible,” said Watson, who was removed from the rotation during the second round of the playoffs last season. “Every game is important to me, and getting this experience, these late-game experiences — this was a playoff atmosphere tonight.”