Down 23 points in the second half, Monte Morris and his Denver Nuggets teammates defeated the San Antonio Spurs 127-120 on Monday.

Any players that come to The Basketball Movement looking to get better are special. Monte Morris of the Denver Nuggets may just be about as special a player as we have had. The young guard is a tenacious defender and is more than capable as a scorer and distributor. Perhaps even more impressive is his possession of the clutch gene.

In an exclusive interview with The Basketball Movement, Morris describes a particularly big moment in Monday night’s game: “My adrenaline was pumping,” says Morris. “I saw (LaMarcus) Aldridge closing, but I let it fly. I knew it was in.” The shot Morris is describing was an extra deep three that acted as an exclamation point to the furious comeback the Nuggets mounted to close out the third.

“I glanced at the scoreboard and knew I had three or four dribbles,” Morris recalls. “It was deep, but that’s a shot we practice all the time. I knew how much I had to get under it and let it fly.” The Nugs had been clawing their way back and had the home crowd whipped into a frenzy. Morris’ deep bomb came at the final buzzer of the third quarter and cut the game to four. The crowd exploded.

The video below starts at four and a half minutes to give a feel of momentum and crowd excitement. Morris’ big moment comes at 4:48:

Paul Millsap and Jamal Murray also had big second-half performances en route to the Nugget victory with Nikola Jokic also excellent as usual. Monte Morris did his damage in only 22 minutes, totaling 16 points and four assists, finishing with the best +/- on the team.

Morris has been rolling of late, averaging 14 points and four assists per just 0.5 turnovers over his last six games. He has been shooting 54 percent from the field including 40 percent from deep.

We asked him what his mindset will be after the upcoming All-Star break: “I just need to continue playing at a high level,” Morris tells The Basketball Movement. “I’m going to be well-rested and ready to go.”

Denver plays tonight on ESPN (9:00 pm CST) against the LA Lakers and NBA All-Star captain, LeBron James. Then, Morris and company will get a much-deserved rest over the weekend before continuing their push to be a top team in the Western Conference heading into the Playoffs.

We would wish Monte luck, but he seems to make his own just fine. Hard work is paying off for Monte Morris and we will all be watching as his story continues to unfold.