The Nuggets lost their second straight game on Friday night and their third in their last four games as they fell to the Trail Blazers, 128-109. For the third straight game, Nikola Jokic did not play due to ankle and elbow injuries.
In a way, it feels like these games without Jokic should just be tossed aside. He’s so important to everything the team does that it’s hard to really judge them in his absence. It’s vital that he rests and gets back to 100% ahead of the playoffs, so it’s hard to even be too upset with these losses.
Still, some underlying issues and trends stick out in games like Friday nights in Portland, but they have been there all season and they’re not going away with or without Nikola Jokic.
The Nuggets' defense is a disaster
When Jokic is on the floor, Denver generally has an elite offense. But whether he’s there or not, the defense is a major problem; there’s no other way to put it. The Nuggets don’t have the point-of-attack defenders to stop players on the perimeter and keep them from blowing by them off the dribble.
Christian Braun is a good defender, but he’s overtasked with guarding elite players. Jamal Murray isn’t doing that. Michael Porter Jr. isn’t doing that. Russell Westbrook has been the team’s best defender at locking guys up at times, but he has lost a step and certainly isn’t elite.
With Kentavious Caldwell-Pope leaving in free agency, the Nuggets lost their stopper and they haven’t been able to replace him on that end. They also don’t offer much in the way of rim protection and they don’t have elite off-ball defenders who can rotate around the weak perimeter defenders. It’s a domino effect of sorts and it’s leading to a lot of defensive breakdowns and teams lighting up the scoreboard against the Nuggets.
Nuggets are 21st in defensive rating
The Blazers are just the latest team to torch the Nuggets defense with Deni Avdija controlling the game with 36 points and 7 assists. He shot 12/16 from the floor and was getting whatever he wanted. He’s just the most recent example, but this is happening almost every game.
Unfortunately for the Nuggets, just about every team they are going to play in the postseason will have elite perimeter attackers and Denver isn’t going to be able to stop them. There is no easy answer to this problem as the Nuggets can’t change the personnel at this point and it’s hard to imagine meaningful improvement in the next month or so.
Denver’s defense is bottom 10 in the league and it’s not a fluke. They haven’t gotten the internal improvement they hoped for on that end and there’s no magic switch they can flip in the playoffs. They are who they are and that’s a below-average defense. They need to address it in the offseason, but for now, it’s looking clearer than ever that their best hope is to outscore teams.