Steve Carp, special to NBA.com
The Denver Nuggets had been one of the surprises of the NBA Summer League, posting a 3-0 record and headed into the tournament format with high hopes and visions of holding the Summer League championship trophy come Monday night.
But the Nuggets, who were the No. 3 seed, were tripped up by Atlanta Thursday and found themselves playing in the consolation bracket Friday. But after a strong start, the Nuggets faded as the Washington Wizards caught them in the fourth quarter and ultimately went on to post a 97-89 win at Cox Pavilion.
It was a tough way to end for Denver, which came into the Summer League playoffs undefeated only to fall on consecutive nights and wind up their week in Las Vegas 3-2. Washington finished at .500 (3-3) with Friday's win.
As is usually the case in these Summer League consolation games, teams tend to rest their high-profile rookies and second- and third-year players. Denver sat Emmanuel Mudiay while Washington didn't play Jarrid Famous, who had been averaging 10.2 points and 6.8 rebounds.
Wizards rookie Kelly Oubre Jr. had a fast start, scoring 12 points in the first 11 minutes and would finish with 30. Washington was down 28-20 but whittled it down to five at the end of the first quarter as Traevon Jackson hit a long 3-pointer to beat the buzzer and cut Denver's lead to 28-23. Jackson would finish with 15 points.
The Nuggets stayed in front, thanks in part to a second-quarter four-point play from Jamaal Franklin who was fouled after nailing a 3-pointer and made the subsequent field goal to give Denver a 35-28 lead with 7:02 left in the quarter.
Denver also got a solid offensive contribution off the bench from Oleksiy Pecherov as the 7-foot center from Ukraine had 12 first-half points and would finish with a team-high 21 points. By halftime, the Nuggets' lead had grown to 51-38.
Oubre helped bring the Wizards back and they cut the deficit to 62-59 with just over two minutes to go in the third quarter. The Nuggets had trouble all game matching up with the former Kansas forward and Oubre took advantage of the situation, hitting over Denver's smaller defenders.
But Oubre wasn't getting a lot of help and the Nuggets were still in front, 69-63 heading into the fourth quarter.
The Wizards tied it at 69-69 with just under eight minutes left and took the lead, 72-71, on Oubre's 3-pointer with 7:13 to go. Another Oubre trey upped the lead to 79-75 with just over four minutes left.
Washington grew the lead to 86-78 with three minutes left and was able to remain in front the rest of the way thanks to Oubre's big night.