The opening game of the Denver Nuggets' regular season wasn't a pretty one. The offense from three-time MVP Nikola Jokic and his sidekick, Jamal Murray, was terrible. There's no sugarcoating that. But there was one bright spot that eluded the Nuggets last season in the 96-84 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder. Defense. And it actually looked pretty good. Especially the way the Nuggets handled OKC guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. So there's at least that moving forward.
The Nuggets were swarming and double-teaming SGA throughout the game, and they snapped his NBA record streak of 141 games scoring 20 or more points in the process. He finished the game with just 17 points on 6-of-19 shooting.
The defense looked very encouraging
Yes, the Nuggets lost, but they lost to a consensus top-two team in the league. Jokic was often seen moving out from the paint, looking more active on the help defense than he has in a long time. And for all that fans heard about Christian Braun having his "explosiveness" back, he showed it by helping to slow down the two-time MVP SGA. The Nuggets were even playing a smart defense, not just physical. Jokic and Braun would corner SGA next to the sidelines to use it as a third defender.
The defensive specialist, Alpha Diallo, fought through countless screens to do his part to help contain the Thunder on the perimeter. By getting around the screener, Diallo made it so that the Thunder couldn't get off an open shot or an uncontested drive into the paint.
Even the non-Jokic minutes' defense looked good. The bench had a better plus-minus than the starters by a wide margin. They played a zone with a double-team emphasis on the perimeter and were quick to recover when the ball was swung around. Marvin Bagley III was a massive improvement over what we saw last year as the backup center to Jokic. And rookie second-round pick Trevon Brazile was fast and flying all over the court, snagging 12 rebounds in 18 minutes.
The transition defense looked...okay
The Nuggets were dead last in transition defense last season, but it did look a little improved in this game despite some of the easy buckets they still allowed. The Nuggets were crashing the offensive boards to help stunt the flow back down the court. Crashing the boards was a big focus for head coach David Adelman to slow opponents this season.
The Nuggets had 19 offensive rebounds, and the Thunder only scored 10 fast-break points while scoring 1.19 per possession. The Nuggets allowed 1.22 points per possession last year. It's still a work in progress.
But on the whole, the defense looked much better than we saw last year in this one. More physical, more active, and more athletic. So even though the offense stunk, at least there's hope that the defense has turned a corner.
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