Julian Strawther gave the Denver Nuggets another useful lift Wednesday night, scoring 10 points in 15 minutes off the bench as Denver beat the Memphis Grizzlies and pushed its winning streak to 10 games. Jamal Murray led the way with 28 points, but Strawther again made his minutes count.
He shot 4-for-6 from the field and 2-for-3 from beyond the arc, another efficient line in a season where his role has not always been steady. Strawther had just two 10-plus-point games through the first half of his third-year campaign, but he followed an 11-point outing in 18 minutes against the Portland Trail Blazers with another productive night against Memphis.
Murray said Strawther is the kind of player who is always working and always in the gym, and that the team teases him about staying ready. He called Strawther a professional, a label that fits the way the wing has answered when his number is called.
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That matters because Denver is heading into the stretch that matters most, and Strawther has already shown he can change a game in a short burst. He scored 15 second-half points on 3-for-4 shooting from beyond the arc in Game 6 of the second-round series against the OKC Thunder last year, the kind of outburst that keeps him in the playoff conversation even when his minutes fluctuate. The Nuggets have enough firepower to win without him taking center stage, but they also have proof that he can swing a game when the rotation opens up.
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For Denver, that makes Strawther less of an extra piece than a player Murray expects to matter when the games tighten. For Strawther, Wednesday was another reminder that staying ready is not just a slogan in a winning locker room; it is how he keeps turning brief chances into something bigger.