What an embarrassing second-half letdown for the Nuggets against the Timberwolves bench in Game 4, a 112-96 loss. Another game in which the Wolves were faster, showed more effort, and outplayed the Nuggets. It's emotionally a letdown. The apathetic-ness of the team under the duress of their season ending early is a shocking sight. They're playing hard, but they're soft. This would have never happened under Michael Malone. He would have fired up the troops.
Malone had the winning edge, the bark, the bite. He was a junkyard dog when you needed it off the sidelines. He would never have allowed Jaden McDaniels' attacks on the Nuggets' defense to go unchallenged. Under head coach David Adelman, the Nuggets are just, soft.
The Nuggets are far too soft
Unless something changes drastically overnight, the Nuggets aren't going to just suddenly find a cure to their softness. They have no physicality because of it, no fight.
The softness is crushing them in the paint. It's leading the Nuggets to getting smoked at the rim. There is no paint presence on defense at all. They're the worst paint team in the playoffs, and dead last in rim protection as well. The Nuggets are allowing 73.7% shooting to the Timberwolves at the rim, and 48.6 points per game at the rim.
Nobody is putting a body on anybody, and it shows. The Timberwolves had 68 points in the paint in Game 3's loss, and 54 in Game 4. Ayo Dosunmu had five buckets in the paint in the second half on his way to 43 points off the bench, and he never hit the floor. He was softly fouled and went 12-12 from the line.
That wouldn't have happened under Malone. An adjustment would have been made. At no point under his tenure as Nuggets head coach did the fans ever have to question the energy and effort of the team. But the layup lines, the lack of defense, the lack of talking back to the Timberwolves, until after the game was over, and walking around like it's just "okay, he said some things about us," and to just get run over for three games is disheartening for the fans.
Can the Nuggets perform a miracle and find their mojo?
Can the Nuggets find their mojo under Coach Adelman and suddenly kick it into high gear in Game 5? We all hope so. But even if they do, can they sustain it?
The Nuggets were living off their three-ball all season, and it's gone. It's like a pitcher losing their fastball. Or Jamie Moyer. You have to get crafty with your curveball and paint the corners to overcome that.
For the Nuggets, they need to create shots when the three-ball fails, and it has, and they've haven't created shots. The offense waits for Nikola Jokic to move. And he can't move against this Timberwolves squad this series. The Nuggets are now down 3-1, on the brink of an early exit.
Malone would have made more adjustments. He wouldn't have been mostly apathetic. He'd have had some words in the post-game comments, and he brought the edge the Nuggets desperately need right now. He's sorely missed by some Nuggets fans.
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