Davon Reed sat down in his defensive stance and sealed a 103-100 win for the Denver Nuggets over the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday at Crypto.com Arena.

Reed, playing on his second 10-day contract of the season, picked up Brandon Boston Jr. out of a Clippers timeout with 12.7 seconds left. Boston had 18 points to his name after making two of his first four 3-pointers when he caught the in-bounds pass. The Clippers rookie had Reed one-on-one at the top of the key when he drove to his left with five seconds remaining. Boston stepped back to the 3-point line a second later, and Reed was right there to poke the ball away, forcing Boston to scramble and rush the game-tying shot, which wasn’t close.

“Just don’t get scored on, get the win, that’s the only thing going through my mind,” Reed said. “Defense is obviously something I take pride in anyway.”

While his defense sealed the win, Reed added 15 points on the offensive end. He hit 6-of-8 shots, including a 3-of-4 mark from 3-point range.

“For a young man who’s on his second 10-day contract with us, he looks like he belongs,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. “I’ve said it since Summer League, Davon Reed is an NBA player.”

Nikola Jokic led the Nuggets with 26 points, 22 rebounds, eight assists, two steals and two blocks. Denver’s star hit two free throws, finishing 7 of 7 from the line, with 12.7 seconds left to cushion the Nuggets’ lead before the game’s final possession.

Will Barton III added 17 points for Denver, while Austin Rivers and Monte Morris added 12 apiece. Rivers joined the starting lineup with Aaron Gordon missing a second consecutive game due to hamstring soreness and made 4-of-6 shots from 3-point range to go with four assists and three rebounds. Rivers’ last make put the Nuggets up six with less than two minutes to play.

“I thought Austin was really good for us across the board tonight,” Malone said.

Boston and Eric Bledsoe led the Clippers with 18 points apiece, while Ivica Zubac added 17 points and 11 rebounds. The Clippers played without star wings Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.

Trailing the shorthanded Clippers by seven with 90 seconds left in the first quarter, Reed, Facundo Campazzo and Bones Hyland hit 3s in the final minute, giving Denver a 32-30 lead to start the second.

Reed hit his second and third 3-pointers and scored 10 of his points in the second quarter, helping the Nuggets lead by as many as 12 in the quarter.

“I just like D-Reed’s confidence. He looks very, very comfortable and confident out there,” Malone said. “I think that’s the key. You’ve got to believe that you belong, and he certainly does.”

Denver led by nine at halftime, but the Clippers used a 26-5 run over the final 7 minutes and 45 seconds of the third quarter to flip a 17-point Nuggets lead into a four-point advantage to start the fourth.

The Nuggets failed to score a single point in a seven-minute stretch that spanned the final five minutes of the third quarter and the start of the fourth quarter. After falling behind by nine with nine minutes to play, Barton tied the game with 4:51 to play. Jokic’s only 3-pointer of the game gave the Nuggets a lead with 3:50 to play, and Denver improved to 16-16 thanks to Reed’s stop on the final play.

“He’s a warrior,” Jokic said of Reed. “He’s a guy, who doesn’t have excuses.”

The Nuggets return to action Tuesday at Golden State. It comes toward the end of Reed’s second 10-day contract, not that he’s counting down the days.

“To be honest, the 10-day contract is never in my mind. That’s never something that I’m thinking about,” Reed said. “I’m out here to play basketball with my team for however long I’m here. When I’m out there, I’m locked in, focused on the game plan. I just want us to win. Anything I can do to promote winning, I’m for.”