A beat up Nuggets team hobbled to Salt Lake City without much hope to win the game, little did they know this game would feature the start of a new Nuggets identity that could change the fate of their season, and even franchise history.

Coming off a huge 4-team trade sending away Malik Beasley, Juancho Hernangomez and Jarred Vanderbilt; the injury plagued Nuggets faced off against division rivals the Utah Jazz. The Jazz had high spirits coming into the game with both their star players Donovan Mitchell, and Rudy Gobert (who both put on Nuggets hats on draft night) being named all-stars. Couple that with a very underhanded Denver team who had many injured players on top of their recently traded assets, key players such as Will Barton, Paul Millsap, Mason Plumlee, and Michael Porter Jr. would not be playing that night. This left the Nuggets to call up PJ Dozier and Vlatko Cancar to the team from their G-League teams. To say the Nuggets were the underdogs of this game would be a vast understatement, absolutely nobody including myself and other Nuggets thought we could win this game.

Regardless of our chances my brother and I got tickets and went to go see our Denver Nuggets play in Salt Lake as we always do, but this game felt different. The air in the stadium seemed gone and it felt like I'd have to get harassed by obnoxious Utah fans on our way out of the stadium for the fifth straight year of going to these games. However following this season I realized this is a feeling that our team and us fans thrive off of.

Tip off.

The game started out fairly as expected a barrage of 3-pointers from Conley and Bogdonovic as well as some wide open dunks from Gobert (who I lovingly call French Hibbert). Our offense held up fairly well but our defense was flustered as expected with only 7 players active and only 1 of them being above 6'9. The game went on and was a catch and fall behind game in the truest sense of the term. Jokic and Murray were themselves, the most dynamic duo in the league both capable of scoring from all three levels and an absolute nightmare to guard in the pick and roll that they run better than anyone else in the league. The rest of the guys filled their roles as much as Michael Malone could have asked them to, Monte Morris was the floor general and efficient scorer he always is. Torrey Craig brought the defense and hustle we have learned to expect from him every game. PJ Dozier looked like a combo of the two out there, running the floor, playing excellent defense, and being a reliable ball handler. Cancar made some great plays on both ends of the floor including a dunk that brought me and the other 50 or so Denver fans in Vivint Smart Home Arena off our chairs. Lastly, Gary Harris. Oh Gary Harris, the stat sheet is not kind to you but you had as big of an impact as anyone out there, rebounding, amazing defense and spacing the floor although his shot wasn't falling at all but he was putting in the work, including hitting some big free throws.

The fourth quarter led to a deficit that ESPN gave us just a 6% chance to come back from. But this team doesn't like odds or bettors for that matter so in classic fashion erased that quickly. We all know how this game ends and it was the best ending capped off with our favorite signature move. Jokic took it to the reigning Defensive Player of the Year and hit his patented "Sombor Shuffle" that he makes look easy. One of those shots your remember where you were when it happened, a Ray Allen game 6 type feeling. I was in the nosebleeds being as obnoxious as you would expect. Laughing at the Jazz fans behind me that throughout the game criticized the Joker's weight, Gary Harris' shooting woes and saying Denver is made up of nobodies, some kid from Kitchener and a "Fat Serbian". The feeling of winning that game in a stadium full of sad Jazz fans was a feeling I wish every Nuggets fan felt.

In my opinion, this game and this squad which was dubbed the "Magnificent Seven" changed our entire teams identity. We learned that we could stay with anyone, no matter who we had. The culture our franchise had built over the past 6 years was paying off, and not being able to get big name free agents due to location didn't matter. This mentality of being able to come back and overcome any obstacle showed throughout the rest of the season. Trials that seemed impossible to overcome for anyone else were mocked by our squad multiple times this post season. 50 point games and one of the biggest post season hot streaks of all time? Beat that. Being down 3-1? Came back from that twice. A team assembled to win the finals this year, featuring two stars and supposedly the best bench in the league? We beat them so hard they fired their head coach. This teams fight is unbelievable and it can only be uphill from here, the culture we've built by drafting and trusting our players and not making "win now" trades has payed dividends and this culture is ever growing. My wish for every Nuggets fan to feel the feeling of beating that Utah team in their own arena was granted. Twice. On a national scale. This is why the Magnificent Seven game changed our entire franchise, and this is why no one should be comfortable when they see the Denver Nuggets on their schedule.