DENVER – Points never mattered much in the Morris residence.

When Monte Morris was learning the game, his first coach made sure he played the right way.

“She never really looked at my points, my rebounds,” Morris told The Gazette on Thursday. “She’d look at my body language, how I carry a team as a point guard, how I made people better that weren’t as good as me and how I used up every possession and opportunity that we had to get a shot up.”

The basketball foundation built by Latonia Morris, Monte’s mother, will be inspected in the six-seed Nuggets’ first-round playoff series against the three-seed Warriors, which starts Saturday in San Francisco. Golden State’s defense has a sharp eye for cracks, finishing eighth in the NBA with 14.5 forced turnovers per game, while Denver’s 27.8 assists per game is the best among playoff teams.

“They’re (No. 3) in steals for a reason,” Morris said. “They got some feisty guys out there on defense, but … if we’re doing Denver Nuggets basketball, we’re No. 1 in assists for a reason. We share the ball and have fun. We can’t go out there and play uptight. If you play uptight, that’s when turnovers will start to happen, but you can’t go out there and play too freely and careless.”

Morris has seemingly mastered the balance. Only one player had a higher assist-to-turnover ratio and played more minutes per game this season. Suns point guard Chris Paul, nicknamed the “Point God” for his positional expertise, recorded 4.6 assists for every turnover in his 17th season, playing 32.9 minutes per game. The 26-year-old Morris, in his first season as an NBA starter, played just under 30 minutes per game and finished with 4.3 assists for every turnover.

“Monte is playing really, really, really good – really good – this year, and he’s making big shots,” Nikola Jokic, the NBA’s reigning Most Valuable Player, said. “He’s making smart plays, so I really, really have a lot of confidence in him.”

Game 1 will be the fifth-year guard’s 44th playoff appearance over four postseasons. He started four games in the franchise’s 2020 run in the bubble to the Western Conference finals alongside Jamal Murray. Morris was in line for more postseason starts last year after Murray tore his Anterior Cruciate Ligament late in the regular season, but a hamstring injury hampered those plans. He played the final three games of the regular season and continued to ramp up his minutes in the first round against Portland in his familiar reserve role. With the Nuggets on the brink of elimination in the second round, Morris got his fifth postseason start as the Suns completed a sweep despite his 19 points and six assists. The injury cost Murray the entire 2021-22 regular season, putting Morris in line for his sixth postseason start Saturday.

“Three years in a row, Monte’s getting better and better,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. “Obviously, last year, he was a starter for us against Phoenix – tough series, great team. We were undermanned, but I think one thing you love about Monte Morris is through the regular season and into the playoffs, he never stays the same. He finds ways to improve, to expand his game. I’ve said it many times, when Monte Morris is aggressive, playing downhill not only is he a different player, but he helps us become a much different team.”

While scoring wasn’t stressed at home, Morris has the requisite ability to keep defenses honest. His 12.6 points per game, good for fourth on the team, came off a 56.4 effective field goal percentage. He shot 48.4% from the field, 39.5% from 3 and displayed an ability to beat defenses at multiple levels, especially in the two-man game with Jokic.

“Nobody’s going to leave him (Jokic) to be open, so when (Morris) is aggressive coming off pick and rolls, knocking down his middies, getting to the rim, penetrating and dishing out to the 3, that’s good for us,” starting power forward Jeff Green said. “The guy can score. He can pass. You know his jump shot is automatic, so you know it just takes the pressure off a lot of guys.”

Morris has been making life easy for teammates going back to his Flint, Mich. upbringing. He led the Beecher Buccaneers to back-to-back state championships as a junior and a senior, earning Michigan’s Mr. Basketball in 2013, before starting his college career at Iowa State. His 4.79 assist-to-turnover ratio as a freshman broke the NCAA record. His ratio was again the best in the country as a sophomore, and he set a new NCAA standard with a 5.17 mark as a senior, while also leading the Cyclones in scoring. He set the NCAA’s career record with 4.65 assists to every turnover and helped Iowa State win three Big 12 Tournament championships in his four years in Ames.

Listed at 6-foot-2 without the elite athleticism that boosts some prospects up draft boards, Morris was available in the final 10 picks of the 2017 draft. Denver selected the steady and heady point guard with the 51st pick. He made three NBA appearances in his rookie season but spent most of the year developing with the G League’s Rio Grande Valley Vipers.

He played in all 82 of Denver’s games in his second professional season, posting six assists to every turnover in 24 minutes per game and finishing fourth in the league in turnover percentage. He further developed into a reliable back up to Murray in the next couple of seasons, earning a three-year, $27-million contract extension in 2020, until the injury provided Morris his biggest platform this season. He hasn’t let the opportunity go to waste.

“I’ll tell you the guy that’s probably raised his value the most is Monte Morris,” Warriors wing and former Nugget Andre Iguodala said during a recent press conference previewing the playoffs. “He’s come in and he’s filled in for Murray and done a hell of a job at it. He beat us one game. He’s shooting the ball well.”

After hitting multiple game-winners at Beecher and Iowa State, earning the nickname “Big Game Tae” for his penchant for clutch plays during his Cyclone days, Morris hit his first NBA buzzer beat on Feb. 16 to beat the Warriors at the Chase Center. After inbounding the ball to Jokic, Morris cleared out and moved to the opposite to space the court. When Golden State sent a double-team Jokic’s way, Morris was shot-ready right in front of the Warriors bench and nailed the game-winner. The Nuggets are anticipating a bunch of different defense looks from Golden State, and Denver will need others to step up when the Warriors send multiple defenders to Jokic.

“We know we have a great player that we play through and is the hub of everything that we do. He, as we all know, in the playoffs, he takes it to another level,” Malone said of Jokic. “I guess the biggest question I have is … I’m curious to see what other guys step up, because he’s going to require and receive so much attention. They’re going to double team him at times when they go small. Which guys are going to step up? Monte Morris, in our four head-to-head matchups, played great against them. We’ve got to make sure that we’re getting everyone else pulling in the right direction to help him when they put two and three defenders around him.”

Morris’s regular-season contributions were crucial to continuing Denver’s run of four straight playoff appearances, and he’s looking to show the game originally crafted by his mother can stand the test of what figures to be his biggest postseason role to date.

“I don’t try to get too high or too low or make the moment bigger than what it is. I know it’s a playoff game, but at the end of the day, I’ve still got to go out there, still do the same stuff I do, turn my play up a little bit more and be ready to go,” Morris said.

“I always knew I was a high-level player. I just needed the opportunity. I’ve always played my role here great, coming off the bench. Unfortunately, Jamal got hurt. I can’t wait for him to get back, but I had to step up and show the world with more minutes I can be more valuable. I feel like I showed that.”