Almost every Nuggets game is following the same exhausting blueprint, up to a point.
Questionable sums of engagement put toward defending in the first half. A teaspoon of Nikola Jokic rest minutes that cause an upset stomach, at best. A deficit of 12 points (maybe 14 or 15) late in the second quarter or early in the third. An energizing run and a sense of revival.
After that, with this team, the result is anyone’s guess.
On Tuesday night at Ball Arena, it was a stirring 119-115 win over Golden State. The Nuggets (11-8) did not give up a point in the final 2:32, ending the night on a 10-0 run. Steph Curry led the Warriors with 24 points, but he shot 8 for 23 from the field and 4 for 15 from outside. Jokic went for 38 points, 10 rebounds, six assists and a pair of clinching free throws to repent for his and the team’s recent struggles at the stripe.
Denver trailed 109-98 with 6:13 remaining but got a spark from Michael Porter Jr.’s four-point play, his only made three in a 22-point night. Jokic got a shooter’s bounce with 1:17 remaining to tie it at 115, Aaron Gordon made a pair of foul shots for the lead with 49 seconds to go, and Russell Westbrook threw himself after a loose ball to force a game-saving turnover after he was subbed in for his defense.
Although the court was an obnoxious shade of yellow to signify and celebrate the NBA Cup occasion, Denver was officially eliminated from the group stage of the in-season tournament by halftime, due to other results around the league. Golden State had already clinched its spot in the eight-team knockout stage before the opening tip.
This one was more about morale for the Nuggets. Losers of two of their last three and three of their last five coming in, they have been victim to their own dramatic swings in effort and execution. Their defense was the worst in the league over the previous five games.
“I’ve always thought that our team was different than a lot because I’ve felt that we’ve played for each other,” coach Michael Malone said during his pregame news conference. “And lately I feel like we’re playing with each other.”
Symptoms, he elaborated, have included lackluster help rotations and Malone’s belief that “we have too many people worrying about, ‘Why am I coming out of the game? How many shots am I getting? How many minutes am I getting?’ And when you start having those kinds of thoughts, that trickles down.”
Malone extended his rotation back to nine players after using Aaron Gordon as his backup center two nights earlier in Los Angeles. But after a poor stint for Zeke Nnaji in the first half, Gordon was back at the five to start the fourth quarter. Even then, the Nuggets couldn’t even slow down Golden State when they needed only to keep their heads above water. The Warriors went on a 10-2 run to erase a 90-85 deficit in under three minutes, a disastrous sequence including three Denver teammates fighting for and losing an easy defensive rebound. Jokic returned to the game immediately after Peyton Watson’s errant entry pass to Gordon and the ensuing fast break.
Denver’s deficit was as large as 11 in the fourth. It was as large as 12 in the second quarter, but that was gone by halftime. The Nuggets’ 12-0 run coincided with an uptick in defensive intensity — they forced four turnovers in the last 5:15 of the half after none up until that point.
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