Denver Nuggets vs Houston Rockets: main takeaways

The Denver Nuggets finally got the proverbial monkey off of their backs and as Nuggets coach Mike Malone would say, made the Rockets take an L on their way out of the Mile High City.

As previously written,  ever since Mike D’Antoni became the Rockets head coach, Denver have struggled to beat Morey-ball. They’ve given the Rockets the 3 pointers and layups/dunks that they most value.

However, as the 136-122 scoreline indicates, Friday night’s game was very different. Simply put, the Denver Nuggets beat the Houston Rockets on both sides of the ball.

The Denver Nuggets’ Offense

Offensively the Nuggets were clicking on all cylinders. A perfect illustration of this is the fact Denver are now ranked the 2nd most efficient offense in the NBA behind the Warriors. A mark even better than last year’s (5th ranked) Nuggets team.

As is the norm for Denver, who average the 3rd most assists per game in the NBA,  the Nuggets relied on a team effort, racking up 37 assists en route to eventually putting up 136 points. With both Jokic (9) and Morris (8) nearly putting up double-digit assists. In addition to this both Millsap and Barton had six assists each.

Furthermore, in stark contrast to Houston, the Denver Nuggets led a balanced attack, from 3, mid range and at the basket too. Malik Beasley who had a game high 35 points, and also Torrey Craig (22 points) and Morris (18 points) were the best examples of this. That balanced attack enabled Denver to have four more made free throws than Houston.

However, the main difference between the offense of both teams was efficiency. Whilst Houston actually made more 3’s than Denver (16 compared 14 for the Nuggets). It took the Rockets a lot more attempts than Denver (44 compared to Denver’s 31) to achieve that. So essentially, whilst Houston may have won the 3 point battle, they lost the war on the field and the free throw line.

Denver’s Defense

One of the main differences between Friday night’s game and the previous meeting between these two teams is the Nuggets perimeter defense. Back then the Houston Rockets made 22 of 47 from 3 (46.8%). With P.J. Tucker (7 ), Harden (6) and Green (6) all hitting their fair share of 3 pointers.

On Friday night Harden was the only one to do serious damage from 3, with 7 makes. Nevertheless Harden was kept from doing damage from virtually anywhere else, he was 5 of 9 from the line and made two other additional field goals.

Following Harden would be Chris Paul who hit 3 of 7 3’s and Eric Gordon who hit 2 of 5 from 3.

Once again, at long last the Denver Nuggets have beaten a key rival led by this season’s MVP favorite.

Denver have now turned an important corner and now have successfully made a blueprint for beating Houston. Moreover, with over 30 games left in the season, that blueprint can be improved upon.

Finally, the Denver Nuggets are once again on top of the Western Conference.

How about those Nuggets?!?!