Wizards vs Nuggets Recap: Jokic back on the board

The Nuggets were edged out by the Wizards.

The Nuggets hosted their Eastern Conference equivalent, the Washington Wizards, at the Pepsi Center in the second home game of the year.  The near sold out crowd from Saturday’s home opener apparently are still feeling the Broncos blues, as the Pepsi Center looked a little more like what we have come to expect.

More from Nugg Love

• Was trading Bones Hyland a mistake for the Denver Nuggets?
• Did Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets break Anthony Davis?
• Denver Nuggets stars face serious disrespect in recent NBA rankings poll
• What will it take for Denver Nuggets star to become ‘inevitable?’
• Denver Nuggets NBA Training Camp report, other preseason dates to know

Tonight’s talk track coming into the game was Jokic’s 6 quarters of play without a basket.  Assists?  Sure.  Rebounds? You betcha. But points?  Not quite yet going into game 3.  Jokic took pregame questions about it with a smirk, knowingly it was only a matter of time.  Matched up across from Jokic tonight at center tonight looked like a character strait from a Street Fighter game.  Gortat’s mo hawk and beard combo makes him look like a goon from a Sega Genesis game that drops a knife or a chain once you punch him a few times.

I digress.

Jokic ended up putting up a nice bank shot off the glass in the first minute to end his shooting drought.  He ended up with 16 points in the first half.  Another cold shooter the Nuggets need to heat up is Jamal Murray who has yet to find his stride similar to his cold start last year.

Counter Murray on the Wizards side, Otto Porter Jr had a hot first half.  A target many Nugget fans looked at in the off season continues to shine behind the duo of Wall and Beal.  The Wizards continue to be a top 4-5 team in the East and have some really impressive pieces.  I was surprised to see that they didn’t bring Nene back on their roster this year.  Quick Google search shows that he is now on the Rockets.  Good for him that he is still contending on great teams.  Was a big fan as a Nugget.

The half ended with a deep 3 by the Wizards with a one point game 56-55.

The only really notable thing to mention in the third was Jamal Murray’s fan pass.  Oh you haven’t heard about the new fan pass option at the Pepsi Center?  If you buy 4 court side seats, you get 4 hot dogs, 4 drinks, and Jamal Murray will toss you an asinine behind the back.  Hell of a deal.  Really trying to get you into the Pepsi Center this year.

The Nuggets were again down one point going into the fourth quarter.   Faried, Mudiay, and Barton started with Wilson and Jokic.  Mudiay was actually playing great defense and had a nice three pointer to start things out.  Really nice to have him play tonight, as rumors are that Eric Bledsoe’s agent was in the arena tonight.  Need to sell him to Phoenix if they are going to make that trade happen.

The Nuggets got within one point, up from seven with 8 minutes left in the game but really stayed down five for most of the game it seemed.  Wizards had 31 points off of Nuggets turn overs tonight.  Maybe is the key of the game.  The guys really enjoyed throwing possessions away tonight.  That or Gary Harris having his first bad game in a year in a half. Dropping passes. Missing shots. Terrible D.  No idea where he was tonight, mentally anyhow.

Tonight it came down to Nuggets down three with one minute left.  Terrible call on Jokic put Porter Jr to the line and put Wizards up 5.  So what does Jokic do?  Come down and buckets a three pointer from about six feet behind the line.  One possession game with 30 seconds left.  NUGGETS SEASON IS BACK.  You forget how often Nuggets games come down to the wire.  Against good teams and against bad teams.  Somehow, Jokic ends up getting a technical shooting foul against him for reasons I still can’t figure out.  Cost the Nuggets the game.

Next: Nikola Jokic: His scoring struggles

If anyone figures out what happens, let this blogger know.  Nuggets play the Hornets in Charlotte Wednesday.