Nuggets weekly nuggets: Denver goes 2-2 despite Jokic's historic brilliance

This week, our Nuggets showcased their ceiling against Utah and their floor against almost every other opponent. From 19-0 runs to blown double-digit leads, three of five games were decided in the final seconds, telling the story of a roster living close to the edge. 

In Rhythm Against the Jazz

Monday’s game started with a 19-0 run to open the game for the good guys. Behind six apiece for Jamal Murray, Cameron Johnson, and Tim Hardaway Jr., Denver splashed 24 three-pointers as a squad, tying a franchise record. In the end, the Nuggets served Utah a 135-112 beatdown at Ball Arena. 

The offense looked good against an overmatched Utah team, as Denver shot 50% from the floor and 51% from deep. Jamal Murray poured in 27. Cameron Johnson went a perfect 6-for-6 from three-point land en route to 20 points. THJ added 21, and Peyton Watson netted 20. In games like this, one can occasionally forget the team is playing without two starters — and nowhere near its championship-caliber ceiling. 

PWat’s Buzzer Miss in Dallas

Watson has been money from the left corner all season. While many fans felt Jokic should’ve taken a tough shot over multiple defenders in the paint, he found a wide open PWat in the left corner, where he had been, to that point, the scoring leader in that zone:

Clean look. From his spot. In and out. Brutal. 

But the loss came far before Jok’s decision in the final seconds. Denver let Dallas build a 21-point lead early in the second quarter and had to fight back the rest of the game. Even after pulling ahead with 5:29 to play, Denver couldn’t get the requisite stops down the stretch to steal the game.

Worse yet, the Nuggets lost more than just the game, with Cam’s knee injury meaning another body lost and more scrambled rotations. The team had already been navigating without Gordon and Braun. Suddenly, David Adelman’s rotation decisions became exponentially more difficult. 

The margin for error, already thin, had effectively vanished down three starters. 

Chaotic Christmas Rollercoaster Game

Looking back, the NBA Christmas nightcap might’ve been a microcosm of Denver’s struggles this week. Control before collapse. A little chaos. A lot of bad clutch defense. And in this case, a win. 

The Nuggets led comfortably heading into the fourth quarter, going up by as many as 15 with under six to play. Then, Denver’s lead once again evaporated as Anthony Edwards and Julius Randle clawed the Timberwolves back into it, with the former tying it on a twisting three in the final seconds of regulation. Overtime arrived. And Minnesota seized control immediately, scoring the first nine points and seemingly putting Denver away. 

But then Nikola Jokic took over. Amid a monstrous 56-point, 16-rebound, 15-assist performance, he notched a preposterous 18 points in overtime alone, setting an NBA record. While he saved the Christmas game from disaster (and Anta Claus' antics), Big Honey also authored one of the greatest individual performances in league history. 

But a disturbing trend might be emerging. Throughout the season, Denver keeps blowing sizable leads and needed a record-breaking performance from the Joker to escape with a win against a good team at home on Thursday. Murray’s 35 points helped, but without the supporting cast at full strength, this year’s group lacks its potentially dominant closing kick in the clutch. 

Unraveling On the Road in Orlando

On Saturday, that fragility — and another blown lead — became a bad loss. 

Anthony Black torched Denver for a career-high 38 points. Without CB, the Nuggets apparently didn’t have anyone healthy enough to stay in front of him. Not consistently. The game plan seemed to concede open threes early, daring him to beat them from distance. He accepted the challenge, going 7/11 from deep. 

Black also played great defense in the clutch. First, he stole the ball from Jokic and dashed for a layup that gave Orlando the lead with just over a minute left. Then, after a clown show of foul calls for both teams — and despite getting away with a foul on the final possession — the young Orlando guard forced an errant Murray pass on the inbounds to Jokic before knocking the ball away from Murray and hustling to stay in front, pressuring the Nuggets’ Canadian guard’s miss at the buzzer. 

To me, the collapse truly came in the early fourth quarter. Adelman went with a four-guard lineup alongside Jonas Valanciunas, likely searching for a different look with his rotation decimated. But Orlando went on a run. In less than four minutes, a 10-point lead evaporated, as the Nuggets put the Magic in the bonus with 9:12 remaining in the game. With Johnson injured, the new head coach is clearly still searching for the right bench combinations. 

Worse yet, is the trend becoming a pattern? After accumulating a 17-point lead behind Jokic’s 34 points, 21 rebounds, and 12 assists, the Nuggets coasted, blew the lead, and lost another clutch game against an inferior opponent. 

These Nuggets Live Dangerously 

Step back, and this week shows three of four games decided in the final seconds. Each of those three featured blown double-digit leads — two by the Nuggets, one on the part of Cooper Flagg’s Mavericks. 

While going 1-2 in those games doesn’t feel awesome, both losses came on good looks for Denver at the buzzer. On the flip side, the win against the loathsome T-Wolves came only because Jokic had the greatest overtime in NBA history. 

I just don’t want the blowing big leads and atrocious clutch defense to become the patterns they’re feeling like right now. 

Yes, I know that part of it is personnel. When you’re missing three rotation players, you can’t absorb mistakes the way a healthy team can. And the close games become coin flips. But part of it is execution. If you ask me, all three were games Denver should have controlled — or did late — and let slip away. 

The offense can still explode, as the Utah game proved. Jokic, the three-time MVP, remains superhuman. Murray is capable of All-Star performances. But without the depth to weather bench scoring droughts or defensive lapses right now, the Nuggets are living on the edge every single night. 

They survived this week with a .500 record. Barely. The question heading into the next one is whether the tightrope eventually gives way on this extended East Coast road trip. 

With games in Miami on Monday, Toronto on Wednesday, Cleveland on Friday and against old friend Michael Porter Jr. in Brooklyn on Saturday, is this survival mode sustainable?

Buckle up. We’ll find out about this depleted roster in the week ahead.