Cameron Johnson's Season-High Night Shows Nuggets What They Need From Him

For most of this season, the Denver Nuggets have leaned on point guard Jamal Murray and center Nikola Jokic to carry the scoring, but forward Cameron Johnson gave them a real third option in Wednesday's 123-118 win over the Memphis Grizzlies.

Johnson scored a season-high 23 points on 9-of-15 shooting, made four of his seven threes and did not turn the ball over in about 30 minutes, while Murray had 30 points and eight assists and Jokic added 27 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists as Denver moved to 6-4.

His best stretch came when the game got tight.

A basket by guard Ty Jerome with 2:42 left cut the Denver lead to 115-113, and Johnson answered with the next five points, first chasing down a loose ball that gave Denver an extra possession and finishing it with a driving layup and then hitting a three off a pass from Jokic with 1:01 left that made it 120-113.

Murray scored 22 of Denver's final 38 points and Denver led the whole way, but it was Johnson's late buckets that kept the Grizzlies from getting over the hump.

Plays like that loose ball do not always stand out in a box score, but they swing close games on the road.

The night was a big jump from his last game, when he scored eight points on 2-of-6 shooting in Monday's loss at Houston.

His previous high this season was 18 points against Indiana in Mexico City, and he missed three games early with a right ankle sprain he suffered in the opener at Oklahoma City, before a hamstring scare against Portland turned out to be a cramp.

Head coach David Adelman has been pushing his players to be more aggressive, and he said the team played free in this win.

Denver traded Michael Porter Jr. and a 2032 first-round pick to Brooklyn for Johnson in July 2025, and this is the player the Nuggets had in mind.

Through seven games he is averaging 12.1 points on 50.0% shooting from the field and 43.2% from three, so the shot is clearly there even when the volume is not.

I want to see him take more of those shots.

Murray is averaging 26.2 points and Jokic is close to a triple-double every night, but forward Aaron Gordon is shooting 38.0% and the bench has not added much scoring.

When Johnson stays aggressive, defenses cannot load up on the two stars, and that is exactly what happened late in this game when Memphis went after Murray and Johnson made them pay.

Murray also talked about how much the defense helped in this win, and Denver blocked 11 shots with nine different players getting at least one.

Sitting ninth in the West, the Nuggets visit the New Orleans Pelicans on Saturday and then host the Phoenix Suns on Monday and the Boston Celtics on Wednesday at Ball Arena.

If Johnson keeps scoring in the high teens, I think Denver can stack some wins in this stretch and move up the standings before November is over.