{"id":872763,"date":"2026-10-31T19:27:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-31T19:27:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/872763\/"},"modified":"2026-10-31T19:27:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T19:27:14","slug":"christian-braun-on-his-shooting-slump-career-high-game-at-phoenix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/872763\/","title":{"rendered":"Christian Braun on his shooting slump, career-high game at Phoenix"},"content":{"rendered":"

PHOENIX \u2014 Christian Braun<\/a> and his instincts are constantly at war with each other. On Wednesday, he was at war with Aaron Gordon for the same reason.<\/p>\n

\u201cAaron was kind of on me,\u201d Braun recalled two days later. \u201cI actually argued about it. But I was open a couple of times early in the (shot) clock. \u2026 You can hear it actually on the broadcast at one point. He said \u2018shoot it\u2019 to me. But he did multiple times.\u201d<\/p>\n

It went on and on, this argument, almost the entire game while the Nuggets were busy trying to fend off a comeback in New Orleans.<\/a> Gordon sided with the team\u2019s collective plea to Braun. They don\u2019t want him to think twice when the ball finds him unguarded on the perimeter. Just shoot. Braun is a little more interested in the semantics. If he has a spot-up opportunity early in the 24-second clock, for example, there\u2019s time to keep the ball moving and generate a better shot.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut those guys need me shooting them when I\u2019m open,\u201d he relented Friday. \u201cThat way in the playoffs, it\u2019s easier for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally, with 4:25 remaining in New Orleans and a 93-85 lead, Braun buried a 3-pointer from the wing. The Nuggets were in comfortable position after that, and by one way of thinking, there wasn\u2019t anything important to be gained from the last four minutes. Except for Braun, who was suddenly experiencing that unexplainable cosmic phenomenon known as \u201cseeing one go in.\u201d It snapped him out of a 2-for-17 start to the season from 3-point range. He made two more before the game was over.<\/p>\n

It laid the groundwork for a wild performance in Phoenix. A full reversal from alarmingly cold to unreasonably hot 3-point shooting. A career-high 31 points on a night Denver needed every one of them to pull out a 127-120 win.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I loved about it was there really wasn\u2019t any pause,\u201d Nuggets coach David Adelman said. \u201cThere\u2019s nights you watch guys when even if they shoot it \u2026 you don\u2019t feel the confidence. Tonight, I did. He just let the thing go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Braun and Jamal Murray became the first Nuggets teammates to make seven 3s each in the same game. Both finished with a 7-for-9 stat line.<\/p>\n

\u201cJamal\u2019s pretty used to it,\u201d Braun said. \u201cI think obviously, me hitting seven is a welcome sight for the offense. I\u2019ve gotta do it more consistently.\u201d<\/p>\n

Braun went on a 6-for-6 heater in the first half, then he saved his last for the 2:15 mark of the fourth quarter, pushing Denver\u2019s lead to 11. In a heartbeat, he has improved his 3-point percentage from 11.8% to 40% five games into the season, starting with that shot in New Orleans. With those annoying reminders from Gordon to fire away.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s just him trying to get me to play the right way and stay consistent,\u201d Braun said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot the preseason I wanted. Not the first few games I wanted. But it\u2019s a percentage for a reason.\u201d<\/p>\n

His instinct to defer isn\u2019t entirely misplaced. It comes from a place of self-awareness, at least, and that can be an uncommon character trait in the NBA. Braun knows that he\u2019s the fifth-best offensive player in Denver\u2019s starting five. It feels counterintuitive for him to take shots away from Murray and Nikola Jokic. The reason he\u2019s often wide open is because the opponent wants him to be.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, I\u2019m open. Getting a lot of good looks because of how we\u2019re played normally,\u201d he said. \u201c\u2026 I think naturally, when you\u2019re missing, you want to pass them up. Especially when you have such talented offensive players on our team.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think when I find myself passing them up, it\u2019s because I\u2019m throwing it to Nikola, or I pass it up and I throw it to Jamal. I know those guys can make a play.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the mental battle Braun has been waging throughout his career. He turned off his brain Friday, exactly as the Nuggets want him to do.<\/p>\n

In a league where defensive strategies are shaped by offensive reputations, this season could be a referendum on Braun\u2019s status as a non-shooter. He shot 39.7% from deep on 2.8 attempts per game in his third season \u2014 the breakout year that earned him a $125 million contract extension. He shot 30.1% on 3.3 attempts per game in his fourth season, which was derailed by injury.<\/p>\n

Opponents are happy, for now, to double-team Jokic or triple-team Denver\u2019s dynamic duo, leave Braun open and live with the consequences. If he can prove last year was the anomaly instead of the year before, the Nuggets\u2019 offense could reach its full potential.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like this whole season, I haven\u2019t hesitated,\u201d Braun said Friday. \u201cI think I\u2019ve been shooting the ones that are open and passing them when they\u2019re not. \u2026 I think today I got a ton of good looks. They just hadn\u2019t been falling before. So it\u2019s easy to say something has changed. Nothing has changed. Process was the same. They just went in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Murray, who has long advocated for Braun to play with irrational confidence, concurs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s been his biggest improvement, honestly. Really the mental aspect of fighting through the misses,\u201d the Nuggets\u2019 All-NBA guard said. \u201cTelling someone to shoot it is one thing. Them shooting is another. But then to keep shooting it through the misses \u2014 first game, second game, and then third game he starts to make it \u2014 that\u2019s why I\u2019m happy. To see him just continue to shoot it with confidence and no hesitation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because when Denver turns down open shots?<\/p>\n

\u201cNormally, we turn it over,\u201d Murray said. \u201cWe\u2019re driving it back into the defense. \u2026 Doesn\u2019t matter who it is. Just let it fly. We\u2019ll grab the rebound. We\u2019ll move onto the next play after that. We\u2019re not worried about who\u2019s shooting it, who\u2019s missing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Murray has been known, on occasion, to issue secret challenges to Braun before games. Mostly when Braun was younger. Three years ago in New Orleans, he dared Braun to go rogue and attempt a step-back jumper. Braun scored 25 that night<\/a>, a career-high at the time.<\/p>\n

Another friendly push in New Orleans from another teammate helped set him on the path to 31 points in 2026.<\/p>\n

Want more Nuggets news? Sign up for the Nuggets Insider to get all our NBA analysis.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHOENIX \u2014 Christian Braun and his instincts are constantly at war with each other. On Wednesday, he was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":872764,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3791],"tags":[877,7,561,765,250,301,187,766,762,165,252,6,253,302,2065,472,4045,66,604],"class_list":["post-872763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-phoenix-suns","tag-aaron-gordon","tag-basketball","tag-christian-braun","tag-colorado","tag-david-adelman","tag-denver","tag-denver-nuggets","tag-front-range","tag-jamal-murray","tag-latest-headlines","tag-more-nuggets-news","tag-nba","tag-nikola-jokic","tag-nuggets","tag-phoenix","tag-phoenix-suns","tag-phoenixsuns","tag-sports","tag-suns"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117537173875717535","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=872763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/872764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=872763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=872763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=872763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}