The lasting image from one of the most hectic Game 7 endings in NBA history was of two young guards embracing in mutual admiration.

Donovan Mitchell had collapsed to the floor, devastated, after Utah’s final 3-point attempt spun out of the cylinder as time expired, leaving Mitchell with only an 80-78 loss to show for his Herculean effort in the bubble: 36.3 points per game on 52% outside shooting in the seven-game saga. On the floor of the mostly empty gymnasium he remained, until Nuggets guard Jamal Murray found him there and helped him up. The two 23-year-olds had traded 50-point games in a memorable series. Murray comforted his opponent. In a sterile environment, it was a rare moment of warmth.

And what about the player who missed the shot?

“It’s hard to escape it,” he said Saturday. “You find that clip every now and then. Sometimes it comes across the phone. I don’t actively search it. I don’t want to bring up that memory too much. But at the same time, though, it’s something that I’ve thought about in workouts. ... I might get the opportunity again.”

The loneliest man in the gym that night will finally get that opportunity again Sunday in another Game 7 — against the same opponent. Murray and Mitchell are forever intertwined by that 2020 first-round playoff clash in the bubble, but 32-year-old point guard Mike Conley was Utah’s second-leading scorer, averaging 19.8 points in the series on 53% shooting from 3-point range. The only shot that’ll live forever was his last one: a pull-up three in transition that would have won the series and eliminated the Nuggets.

Now 36 and still chasing his first championship, Conley has been waiting for an opportunity like Sunday.

His Timberwolves against a similar Nuggets core in another Game 7. How many times has he replayed the moment in his head over the last 48 hours, since Minnesota forced a winner-take-all game?

“The last four years,” Conley said, “not the last 48 hours.”

It was one of the most crucial sequences of the Nuggets’ rise to power. This 2024 series is littered with the same characters. Nikola Jokic scored the eventual game-winning basket on a hook shot with 27.8 seconds left. Guarding him and contesting the shot was Rudy Gobert, who also plays for the Timberwolves.

The Jazz’s initial opportunity to tie or win the game was thwarted when Gary Harris picked Mitchell’s pocket with 10 seconds remaining. Murray dribbled the other direction and passed to Torrey Craig, who botched an ill-advised layup instead of holding onto the ball and playing keep-away to force a foul.

Gobert rebounded the miss and fired an outlet pass to Conley, who had a clean look at the buzzer. In and out.