Following a five-day hiatus after an encouraging 133-115 win against the Atlanta Hawks, the Denver Nuggets had a disappointing week, to say the least. They lost 108-94 to the 14th-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder, then lost 115-107 to the struggling Charlotte Hornets, a game that they led by 17 going into the fourth quarter.
The Nuggets defense was the glaring issue that made them drop these two very winnable games. So what went wrong?
Denver Nuggets: Thunder in the paint
In Oklahoma City, coming off a five-day break (including a cancelled game with the Brooklyn Nets), the Denver Nuggets’ starters fell flat and looked like a team that was completely out of sync.
The Nuggets never led after the 6:36 mark in the first quarter, and the starters showed a lack of defensive urgency that led coach Michael Malone to pull the starters in the third quarter and never put them back in. Even when the game got into striking distance, just nine points with 4:50 left in the fourth, Malone didn’t bring the starters back in, telling Mike Singer, The Denver Post:
"“When in doubt, I’m gonna play guys that want to go out there and play hard.”"
Denver’s defense gave up a staggering 62 points in the paint. That figure is well below the league’s worst team in that area, the Sacramento Kings, who give up an average of 53.2 paint points a night per Team Rankings.
Despite giving up an exorbitant number of points, the Nuggets only scored 36 in that area.
Much has been made about Denver’s lack of a true backup center to Nikola Jokic, with undersized bigs Jeff Green and JaMychal Green filling the role, and perhaps this game was a paradigm of that issue. The recent success of backups JaVale McGee, Dwight Howard, and DeMarcus Cousins has shown how important an impactful backup center can be, and this loss could propel Tim Connelly to look into available centers this trade deadline.
Denver Nuggets: Hornets swarm the perimeter
Against Charlotte on Thursday, the Nuggets played better against a more productive team but collapsed late to drop another loss and move a game below .500. Denver led by 13 at the half and 17 after the third quarter but was outscored 38-13 in the fourth to lose.
Denver shot better from the field (41.7 percent compared to 41.5 percent), better from 3-point range (35 percent over 34 percent), and out-rebounded Charlotte (54 to 50), but still lost by eight.
This speaks to how important 3-point scoring and getting to the free-throw line is in the modern NBA. Charlotte simply took and hit more 3-pointers, took seven more free-throws, and that was the difference in the game.
In the final quarter, Denver could only muster 13 points, with a big problem being getting to ball to their MVP center Nikola Jokic. Jokic was having an off night, but nobody else was playing well enough to warrant taking big shots than him, and that was the downfall of the Nuggets in the fourth.
The other main weakness that Charlotte exposed was their lack of quick perimeter defense. Ish Smith didn’t play until the third quarter but was an incredible +27 in just 14 minutes. Smith is known as one of the fastest players in the NBA, and he was able to penetrate Denver’s defense with ease:
New hardship exemption addition Davon Reed was curiously on the bench for the entire game after playing in every previous game. He has shown great length and speed on the perimeter, and has been tasked with guarding faster players like Smith so it’s puzzling as to why he didn’t check in.
If these problems continue, look for Reed to be tasked with similar assignments in crucial parts of games.
Denver has seen what was once a top-rated defense in the league drop to 21st in defensive rating per Cleaning the Glass. Perhaps playing time for Reed is the answer to the need for perimeter defense, or perhaps, just like with the backup center position, the trade market is where Denver needs to look and make some tough decisions to shore up their defense.