Denver couldn’t contain the duo of stars for Washington
The short-handed Denver Nuggets came up short against the Washington Wizards. This loss was one that was somewhat expected.
The Wizards seem to just have the Nuggets’ number for whatever reason this season. Not a single Denver starter finished with a positive plus/minus box score in this match-up. The Nuggets were without Kenneth Faried, Danilo Gallinari, and Nikola Jokic, and man could they have used them for this particular game.
With this loss, the Portland Trail Blazers and Dallas Mavericks inch closer to the final playoff spot in the West and are smelling blood in the water. John Wall, Bradley Beal, and Otto Porter Jr. combined for 75 of Washington’s 123 points.
Denver Nuggets
They certainly took advantage of the Nuggets’ porous defense. Denver has improved a bit on the defensive end in the second half of the season, but they are still very inconsistent. This game was evidence of that fact. Gary Harris didn’t even log a single steal in this game which is extremely rare for him.
He did lead the way with 26 points as he and Wilson Chandler seemed to be the only players who were able to score on a consistent basis.
Chandler poured in 21 points and grabbed 2 steals during the process. There was a Mudiay sighting, but he only played a total of 7 minutes. He scored 4 points on 40% shooting and grabbed 1 rebound to go along with 1 assist in his short-stint. He finished the game with a box plus/minus of -5.
One bright spot for the Nuggets was the rookie, Jamal Murray. Murray was debatably the best Nugget on the floor as he scored 17 points on 46% shooting from the field. Murray even showed off his passing ability as he logged 5 assists and finished with a box plus/minus of 0.
Not the most stellar box plus/minus, but compared to the way most of the team played in this game, he really deserves the most credit for his performance.
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The Nuggets really needed to win this game, but there is still hope as they are still in control for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference.