PHOENIX – It was a mistake Peyton Watson probably won’t make in a year or two. But at this stage in his nascent career, it could be considered a growing pain.
Ultimately, it was a valuable one.
The Nuggets held an improbable 107-106 lead with barely four minutes left Thursday night at Phoenix. Down all five starters, Denver’s deep reserves had momentarily become its bench, and its bench had transformed into its starters. That placed Watson, whose recent emergence has made the final stretch of regular season games bearable, on the floor, in crunch time, against his mentor, Kevin Durant.