Michael Malone's late-game blunder cost Nuggets chance to win Friday night

The Nuggets loss to the Spurs on Friday night in Ball Arena will go down as an instant classic, mostly remembered for the heroic efforts of Nikola Jokic and Victor Wembanyama. The two goliaths will rightfully receive the lion’s share of attention as the current, and perhaps future, MVPs put on a historic show.

But looking beyond the obvious matchup of superstar centers, this was a nip-and-tuck game that came down to the final possession. The Spurs pulled out a 113-110 road win, pulling them to within just 1.5 games of Denver in the Western Conference standings.

It’s easy to chalk this loss up to the brilliance of Wemby, but this was a game the Nuggets should have won. They were up by five points with under two minutes remaining; that’s a game this team usually wins. But the normally steady Nuggets were anything but that in crunch time for a change.

With the clock ticking under 15 seconds, the Nuggets had the ball down by one and chose to play through Jokic on the block, clearing out and abandoning their usual two-man game with Jokic and Jamal Murray. Murray didn’t have a good game, but that action has been one of the best in the NBA in recent years and a staple of this team.

Instead, Jokic tried to back down Wemby on the block with his teammates clearing out to space the floor. As Keldon Johnson came to double, Jokic spun into his patented Sombor Shuffle move, but to his surprise, he was met by Wemby’s fully outstretched arm defending him perfectly.

The Joker, realizing his shot would be blocked, pivoted in midair and attempted a cross-court pass which was easily intercepted by Devin Vassell. Vasell could have run the clock out, but instead took the steal coast to coast and dunked it, putting the Spurs up by 3 with 1.7 seconds left in the game.

Inexcusable for Malone to not call timeout to draw up final shot

Jamal Murray took the ball out of the hoop and flung it to Michael Porter Jr. around halfcourt, who took one dribble and put up a heave from 35 feet that never had a shot. This all happened so fast and in the moment it felt like Vassell’s steal effectively ended the game.

But that wasn’t the case at all. Vassell gifted the Nuggets an opportunity and they failed to take it. Michael Malone had a timeout remaining. He could have stopped the action and settled his team down. They would have advanced the ball to half-court and Malone could have drawn up a play to get off a good look to potentially tie the game.

Maybe Malone was afraid of the Spurs fouling up 3, maybe he thought they could catch them off guard by not calling timeout, or maybe he just got caught up in the moment. But there’s no good excuse for this decision. 

1.7 seconds is more than enough time to get a good shot, while also probably not enough time for the Spurs to risk a foul. Denver has two of the best passers in the world with Jokic and Russell Westbrook and could have put shooters like Murray, MPJ, and Julian Strawther on the court to spread the floor and look for openings.

Ultimately, there’s no guarantee they would have gotten off a good look, made the shot to force OT, or gone on to win the game. But to not even give the team a chance is just a terrible coaching decision.

Malone was clearly frustrated after the game; he got to the podium almost right away, beating most of the reporters to his press conference. He was only asked five questions and none of them had to do with the lack of a timeout call.

The Nuggets and Spurs meet again on Saturday night, so this will give the team a chance to quickly get this bad taste out of their mouths. Hopefully, they will, but it would be nice to hear Malone discuss his costly decision at some point.