Nuggets vs Pelicans: Recap- Tall Ball pt. 2

The Nuggets came up short against the Pelicans in their second scrimmage.

The Nuggets were not afraid to shy away from “tall ball” with the starting line-up of: Nikola Jokic, Torrey Craig, Jerami Grant, Mason Plumlee and Bol Bol, as they again only had one guard available to play in Saturday’s scrimmage. Jamal Murray, Gary Harris, WIll Barton, Michael Porter Jr. and Paul Milsap all sat today for various reasons leaving the cupboard bare again for coach Malone.

On Denver’s first possession, Bol Bol received a pass from Jeremy Grant and knocked down his first 3-point shot of the game. But through the first quarter the offense was lackluster and the defense felt similarly so. The Nuggets quickly fell behind as the Pelicans pushed the pace and hit a number of threes stretching their lead.

The Nuggets seemed to really struggle guarding the likes of J.J. Redick on the perimeter as well as the speedier guards of the Pelicans. They tended to over-pursue on the 3-point line leading to some easy baskets for New Orleans. Jokic checked out of the game with approximately four minutes left in the quarter and Denver quickly went from trailing by three points to being down by double digits.  By the end of the first Denver trailed 20-33.

In the second quarter the Nuggets’ deficit ballooned to 19 before they reinserted the Joker. Jokic, who still looks like he needs to shake off some rust, was finding guys and creating opportunities for his teammates and they were able to start chipping away at the Pelicans’ massive lead.

Jokic was also able to take advantage of some opportunities to post-up some smaller defenders like Jrue Holiday and Lonzo Ball. Near the end of the quarter, Tyler cook scored on back to back Nuggets possessions scoring five points and cutting New Orleans’ lead to 12.

With about 22 seconds left in the half, Bol Bol took a dribble handoff from Nikola Jokic and split the defenders in the lane scoring a contested bucket that cut the lead to 11. At the half the Pelicans still led the Nuggets 63-52.

The Nuggets came out in the third looking like they were going to make a run at the lead, cutting the deficit to six points with 10:55 left in the quarter. However, the success was short lived as the Nuggets were forced to run one of their Tall Ball line-ups and The Pels turned up the speed. Mason Plumlee did his best to keep up with the surging Pelicans and had a number of nice plays around the rim, including a nice drive into the lane basket off of the backboard and drawing a foul.

Troy Daniels had a great shooting night, sinking 7-10 3 pointers and was a big reason the Nuggets did not fall even further behind. The third quarter ended with the Nuggets in striking distance, only behind by ten points: 85-75.

By quarter number four we saw very little of either team’s starting caliber players. Jokic never saw the court again and we saw a larger dose of Noah Vonleh and Tyler Cook.  Bol Bol got a number of minutes but missed most of the shots he took and looked a bit fatigued coming down the home stretch. He had a few “rookie mistakes” resulting in turn-overs but overall ended with 15 points.

The only offensive player of any note was Troy Daniels who ended with a team high 28 points. The Pelicans eventually outscored the Nuggets in the fourth quarter, handing them their first “bubble” loss of the year.

Overall, the Nuggets were not all available to play in this scrimmage and having only eight available bodies put them at a natural disadvantage against a quick, court-running New Orleans team. Jerami Grant had a really tough game going 4-12 from the field and only hitting four of his free throws. He is another player who will hopefully benefit from having some time to get back to the grind and will find his shot more regularly as the games that actually matter approach.

Bol, even though he seemed to have regressed this outing, is still a blast to watch and seems to be clicking with Nikola as they play more and more minutes together. The biggest take-away from this game was the lights-out shooting by Daniels and how it will impact the rotation moving forward.

The Nuggets have not been a consistent 3-point shooting club thus far and Daniels’ ability to drain the three from almost anywhere on the floor is very intriguing. The next and final scrimmage will be vs Orlando on Monday evening.