“The third quarter was, arguably, I would say probably one of our top five quarters of the year.”

David Adelman was incredibly pleased with the Denver Nuggets effort on Wednesday night, a 129-93 thrashing of the Houston Rockets in perhaps Denver’s most impressive win of the season. The Nuggets were coming off of two losses against elite teams and took out their frustrations against Houston, who lost this game in a crooked third quarter that saw Denver win 40-22 in the period.

The biggest keys to that stretch were Cam Johnson and Christian Braun, both of whom played extended third quarter minutes and excelled on both ends of the floor. While Jamal Murray led the way with 30 points and Nikola Jokic did something statistically that was never done before, the two most encouraging players were Johnson and Braun.

Johnson has had a rough stretch over these last couple weeks, and he was clearly feeling the pressure for a while. Rather than fold, Johnson played one of his best games of the season, scoring 17 points on 6-of-9 from the field to go with 2 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals, and 2 blocks. If that sounds like relatively pedestrian production, the box score didn’t do Johnson’s performance justice. He was involved, made great plays while balancing his own scoring aggression, and impacted the game at a high level.

“I think sometimes he’s trying to make perfect plays, and instead of just making the play that is right there in front of you. Usually that’s the right decision,” Adelman stated plainly about Johnson’s mindset shift. “Really good to see Cam have a night, and it’s what I talked about before the game: these guys have to find their rhythm.”

Johnson has been out of rhythm for a while, but he’s been a professional for a long time and knows how to get himself out of a slump.

“Just being a little more active, a little bit more involved and moving around, trying to find windows, trying to find lanes,” Johnson stated clearly after the game.

Frequently, Johnson starts to float a bit offensively when he’s not involved. The Nuggets haven’t gone to him as frequently of late, and as a result, he doesn’t have a lot of opportunities to impact the offense and has struggled in those limited reps. Tonight, Jokic made a concerted effort to keep him involved, and Johnson paid off that trust.

Christian Braun, on the other hand, was exactly who the Nuggets have wanted him to be, outside of a buzzer beater three after crossing halfcourt heading into halftime.

Braun had 19 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 assists, shooting 8-of-10 from the field and 3-of-4 from three. He didn’t need a single free throw and scored extremely efficiently. Two third quarter threes helped the Nuggets push their lead up past 20 points, and those shots proved to be the nail in the coffin for the Rockets, who simply didn’t have the energy to match the Nuggets tonight.

Outside of Johnson and Braun, Jamal Murray hunted Reed Shepperd and the Rockets in pick and roll and dribble handoffs all night, going for 30 points and 4 assists on 11-of-21 from the field and 3-of-4 from three. Murray’s eyes seemed to light up every time the undersized and un-athletic Shepperd was forced to guard him, and Murray shot the ball with extreme confidence in those moments.

Jokic, for all the night was about other people, still did something quite remarkable. His 6 points, 7 rebounds, 9 assists, and 5 steals (!) after the first half ended up being the first time any player has achieved those totals since the 1996-97 season when Play-by-Play data was first tracked.

It’s just a footnote in what was otherwise a tremendous Nuggets win, but it shows that on a night Jokic had 16 points, 12 rebounds, 13 assists, and 5 steals in three quarters, he can truly impact the game on both ends of the floor at a high level when in position to do so. If the Nuggets are connected and rested on the defensive end, they can play great defense. It’s simply few and far between when that happens.

“I think it’s just part of the process,” Adelman shared of Denver’s impressive win. “What it really means to me is we won the season series, which is a big deal with all these teams so close together, and that’s a really quality opponent.”

Adelman was pragmatic in postgame as always. He stated plainly that this was just one game, and he’s right to downplay the performance at this point of the year. The Nuggets must string together wins at this point and can’t get too caught up in one victory, especially when they have another game on Thursday in San Antonio.

But this was a big one. The Nuggets clinched the season series against Houston, a team they’re battling for seeding in the playoff bracket. Four teams (Houston, Los Angeles Lakers, Minnesota Timberwolves, and Denver) all have records of either 40-26 or 40-25. The 3rd through 6th seeds are going to be a seesaw the rest of the year, and the Nuggets would ideally like to get the 3rd seed if they can.

We will see if they can continue the momentum against an exceptionally tough San Antonio Spurs squad on Thursday night.