Denver Nuggets Rout The Knicks to Kick off Their Long Roadtrip

After two disappointing losses, the shots finally start falling for the Denver Nuggets. A good loss against a bad team is a good start to a tough east coast trip.

We can all sigh in relief as the Denver Nuggets executed impressively against the dreadful Knicks. The defense was excellent and the offense was finally adequate. The bench was also the catalyst for this game! The starters were fine to start the game, but it wasn’t until the bench came in did the Nuggets create any real separation.

The Offense:

Yes, it was the Knicks, but it takes a confidence building game like this to hit a stride. Denver took advantage of the porous Knicks defense to hit a rhythm. As of last night, the Nuggets are the best shooting team on the road this season. This gives a pretty positive outlook for the next stretch of games.

A few players hit a great stride this game. Will Barton, who I heavily criticized for his poor shooting performance against the Lakers, followed up with an efficient 17 points hitting all of his 4 perimeter shots. Juancho Hernangomez hit 50% of his 8 three point shots, playing excellently.

Nikola Jokic did not shoot much, (6 points on 7 shots), but he dished out 8 beautiful assists and was a +10 during his court time. Jamal Murray was good, but I still want him to take more threes. Plumlee was fantastic on offense, grabbing 3 rebounds on offense and contributing an additional 6 assists finishing as a +32. Malik Beasley was the x-factor tonight. I’ll discuss the bench below, but Beasley’s shooting was the stimulant for the 74 total bench points.

Everyone was firing on all cylinders last night, and it lead to 8 total Nuggets finishing with double digit scoring.

The Defense:

The defense all around was excellent. Some of the notable statlines included Monte Morris collecting 3 steals and a block. Mason Plumlee added 3 steals as well. Millsap’s defense was exceptional as usual as he collected 2 blocks. Julius Randle, who was Millsap’s defensive assignment to begin the game scored 6 points on a 32.1% USG.

According to Cleaning the Glass, the Nuggets held New York to a 104.1 offensive rating on a 52.4% eFG% (League average around 55%). They were also held to an 89.6 offensive rating in the halfcourt.

The team continued to kill it on defense as expected to one of the worst teams in the Association.

The Bench:

As I mentioned before, the bench scored 74 points. Every single member of the bench, (of non-garbage time guys), has a plus-minus of +26 or more. Jerami Grant was deadeye from the arc, hitting 3 of 5. Beasley hit 3 of his 6 triples as well. As soon as the second unit came in, the shooting from the bench buried the Knicks in a hailstorm of threes.

Between the shooting and defense from the bench, they rolled the Knicks in the second quarter. The 17-0 run to close the first half was an overwhelming display of dominance.

The Knicks were an ideal matchup going into this roadtrip to establish a rhythm for the offense as they look ahead to Boston, Brooklyn, and Philadelphia.