It was ugly, but The Denver Nuggets pulled out a win. They rose and fell, then rose yet again to close out the second night of a back-to-back with strength.
Tonight was beneficial for the Nuggets.
Not only did they pull out a win, but the adjustments made and minutes played were important all around.
Coach Malone ran with a 9 man rotation with Paul Millsap (quad) out for the night. There were some curious notes about that rotation.
Let’s take a look –
The Good:
Today, December 15th, is affectionately known as “Jok-mas” around Nuggets Nation. It’s the anniversary of Nikola Jokic’s insertion into the starting lineup, the ushering in of a new era of Nuggets basketball.
Jokic celebrated this day by posting a very quiet, but effective, 25 points, 10 rebounds, and five assists. His assertiveness during this game led him to take 22 shots, hitting 10 of them, including two of his five shots from deep.
Jokic's averages in the playoffs last year: 25.1 points (50.6 FG%, 39.3 3FG%), 13.0 rebounds, 8.4 assists
— Harrison Wind (@HarrisonWind) December 16, 2019
Jokic's averages over his last six games: 23.7 points (55.2 FG%, 35.5 3FG%), 10.5 rebounds, 7.3 assists
He's getting there
A surprising leader in the box score tonight came in assists. Mason Plumlee topped the Nuggets in dime totals with six. His efficient 14 points (six made on eight shots) led the bench unit to be effective overall.
Michael Porter Jr. played like a rookie with very high upside. Michael Malone left him in to play in high leverage minutes. He gained experience while adding a formidable presence on the glass with 8 rebounds, 4 of them on offense.
Will Barton‘s 9 rebounds were immensely important down the stretch as well. His driving ability is something that the Nuggets lack elsewhere. It’s been absolutely vital to the Nuggets offense this year, which is something that almost no one foresaw. This is backed up by his RAPTOR ranking (6th), and ESPN’s RPM Ranking (8th)
Will Barton is better than I thought and I was as high on him as anyone. This has been an unbelievable first 25 games for him.
— Adam Mares (@Adam_Mares) December 16, 2019
Even with the good things we witnessed this game, there was also some not-so-good. There’s definitely a balance here. Some things definitely went wrong when we had a 13 point deficit in a quarter against the Knicks.
The Not-so-good:
The entire third quarter was absolutely abysmal.
Marcus Morris dropped 16 points in that quarter alone. The Nuggets offense came to a grinding halt very rapidly coming out of the half. They settled for contested drives and difficult mid range shots.
Per Cleaning the Glass, the Nuggets took 35% of their shots tonight from the mid-range, but only 29% from three. An ideal shot profile would be closer to swapping those numbers. This is especially true when noting that they shot 35.7% from three tonight, which results in 1.068 points per shot. From mid-range, they shot 31.2%, which results in a mere 0.624 points per shot.
Jamal Murray struggled on offense, failing to take threes coming off of screens. Instead he settled for more difficult shots, only going 5-14. He did hit a very important three point shot late in the game, which ended up being the nail in the coffin. His defense still continued to be solid for Denver, playing great defense in the post on a few possessions. Murray finished the game with the lowest plus-minus of the game with +2.
Speaking of plus-minus, Michael Porter Jr. was a team-worst -2, though a good chunk of his minutes came in the problem-filled third quarter.
Porter provided a lot offensively, but looked lost at times on defense. One notable event was when 34 year old Taj Gibson shook him, then blew by him near the basket.
Recap:
Despite the miscues, the Nuggets did end up winning, even if it wasn’t in ideal fashion. The minutes from Porter are valuable. Jokic repeated an impressive performance. The lack of urgency in the third quarter was probably the result of overconfidence. Once the game needed to be won, key personnel stepped up.