It happened again. Again, again. The Nuggets dropped another game in which they led in the fourth quarter, another game in the clutch, and another game they should have won. But it's hard to win close games with such a large hole on defense, and Jonas Valanciunas is entrenched as Nikola Jokic's backup, leaving the Nuggets with a problem they may not be able to solve.
No, it's not directly Big Val's fault that the Nuggets choked away another game, a game in which they led by nine at halftime and by six to start the fourth. But it certainly doesn't help when you have Big Val spinning in circles in the paint, watching everyone rotate around him. He gave away the lead twice in the 127-121 overtime loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Big Val looked stuck in the paint
To start the fourth, he left his man on a screen, who hit a three, and the next possession, he watched everyone else fight for a rebound and scatter. His man didn't get a look, Dort buried an open three, but Big Val's man was wide open. Lead gone.
Next possession, the smaller Dort creates space in the paint and hits an easy jumper right over Valanciunas, and the Nuggets are now forced to play catch-up. In just two and a half minutes of fourth-quarter floor time, Big Val was minus nine, which was actually better than his first-half split of minus 12 in six minutes.
In the first half, the 14-point lead was cut to two by the time the Joker had returned to save the day. Add it up, and Big Val's at minus 21 for the game. Jokic was plus 15 on a very poor shooting night. Just a casual 36-point difference between the two.
What do the Nuggets do to fix it?
What's the answer? The Nuggets clearly only have one person they rely on to spell Nikola Jokic, but his defense has been atrocious. Even when the Nuggets won by 54 points in Portland, Big Val found a way to go minus one.
It's not a small problem to patch. He's the worst defender on the team with a 118.7 defensive rating that balloons to 120.6 when he comes off the bench, which he does every night.
Everybody likes Big Val, he's funny, he's got a great personality. But right now, we all need him to get a little more physical and figure this out. Or, head Coach David Adelman will need to start experimenting with someone else as the Joker's backup, because something's got to change.