One of the strong suits of the Denver Nuggets has always been defensive rebounding. Of course it has been. They've got Nikola Jokic in the paint grabbing over 9.5 of them per game the past three years. But he's off by 2, down to 7.5 after six games this year, and none of the other Nuggets have been persistent in helping the big fella out. Jamal Murray took note of it, and he sounds like he's going to try to rally the team together to crash the boards more.
The Nuggets were out-rebounded 53-37 by the Portland Trail Blazers in their 118-110 loss at Ball Arena. And it was really bad for the Nuggets on the defensive end. They allowed 21 offensive rebounds to the Blazers, 9 from Donovan Clingan alone. The Nuggets got lucky, too, as the Blazers only converted them into 12 second-chance points.
"We got to help Jokic out. I think we just got accustomed to him grabbing so many boards against every single matchup every single night," Murray said in the press conference after the game.
You could say that again, Mal. The Nuggets need to start crashing the boards with more intensity every single game.
The Nuggets have fallen off a cliff this year on the boards
The Nuggets were the third-best defensive rebounding team in the NBA last year. But after six games, they sit 26th of 30. What happened? Some balls just took bad bounces against the Blazers. But the Nuggets also got worked on the glass by the undersized-Golden State Warriors. It's becoming a pattern.
Obviously, some of it's just waiting for Jokic to get the ball, as Murray said. There needs to be more aggressiveness from everyone, and there needs to be better box-outs in the frontcourt. Murray has actually been pretty active on the boards from the perimeter. He's at 4.5 defensive rebounds, which would be a career high.
The strange part is that the Nuggets have actually been better this year on the offensive glass as part of their approach to try to slow the other team down in transition. They're 18th at the moment, after being 26th last season.
At least it's early in the season, and there's plenty of time for improvement. But I think it's a bit of a shocker for Nuggets fans to see the team just fall short of what their typical play has been over the years. For now, I'm attributing it to a bit of rust. It's not like Jokic, Aaron Gordon, and the bunch fell off this much after one offseason.
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